“Do these people actually think they’re getting any of this money?”
As a judge on Wednesday (12 October) ordered Alex Jones to pay nearly $1 billion in damages to the families of Sandy Hook victims, the Infowars host held a livestream where he mocked the verdict and also begged listeners to help him foot the bill.
A Connecticut jury ordered the far-right conspiracy theorist to pay $965 million (€996 million) in damages to families of the victims in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 20 first graders and six adults were killed.
Jones has spent years circulating conspiracy theories about the shooting, including saying that it was a hoax intended to rile support for gun restrictions.
Jones was hosting his show when the verdict was announced and said he plans to appeal it, suggesting that it was simply a “scare tactic”. To do that, he needs money from his fans, he said.
“They want to scare everyone away from freedom and scare us away from questioning Uvalde, and what really happened there or Parkland or any other event and guess what? We’re not scared, and we’re not going away, and we’re not going to stop,” Jones told listeners.
MORE – Alex Jones reacts to the verdict: "They want to scare everybody away from freedom… We're not scared, and we're not going away, and we're not going to stop."pic.twitter.com/pgcVM3OhnN
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) October 12, 2022
Before continuing: “Literally for hundreds of thousands of dollars, I can keep them in court for years, I can appeal this stuff, we can stand up against this travesty against the billions of dollars they want. It’s a joke.”
The radio talk show host then urged his fans to visit the InfoWars website to purchase items, with proceeds going towards Jones continuing to fight his case.
Insider reported that Jones also said: “Do these people actually think they’re getting any of this money?” Jones said.
Legal experts told the publication it is unlikely Jones will be able to escape the judgement, even if he never pays it in full.
Matthew Barhoma, attorney and founder of Power Trial Lawyers and Barhoma Law suggested the debt might “follow him for the rest of his life”.
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