The US Supreme Court rejected an appeal by far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of the $1.4 billion in damages he has been ordered to pay for falsely claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax. Photo / Jeff Kowalsky, AFP
The US Supreme Court rejected an appeal by far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of the $1.4 billion in damages he has been ordered to pay for falsely claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax. Photo / Jeff Kowalsky, AFP
The US Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of the US$1.4 billion ($2.4b) in damages he has been ordered to pay for falsely claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax.
The top court turned down Jones’ appeal of the defamation judgmentwithout comment.
Jones, founder of the website InfoWars and host of a popular radio show, has been found liable in multiple lawsuits brought by relatives of the victims of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, which killed 20 children and six teachers.
Jones claimed for years on his show that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged by gun control activists and that the parents were crisis actors, but has since acknowledged it was “100% real”.
Sandy Hook families maintained that Jones’ lies and denialism, coupled with his ability to influence the beliefs of thousands of followers, caused emotional trauma.
