Sandy Hook Family Has a Dollar Amount for Alex Jones

For the first time, a Sandy Hook victim's family has named a price they believe Alex Jones should pay for defaming them with his lies about the Dec. 14, 2012, mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school. The lawyer for the parents of Jesse Lewis, one of the 20 first-graders killed that day alongside six educators, said in court Tuesday that Jones should pay $150 million for claiming the 6-year-old's parents, Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, were part of a government scheme that orchestrated a fake shooting in order to justify confiscating firearms. The attorney said the large dollar amount was justified after Jones carried out "the most despicable and vile campaign of defamation and slander in American history," the New York Times reports.

Per USA Today, the attorney painted the amount of $75 million per parent as one dollar for every American taken in by Jones' lies, citing a poll that found 24% of Americans believe the Sandy Hook massacre was, or may have been, staged. Both sides gave opening statements Tuesday in the first of three trials this summer to determine how much Jones owes Sandy Hook families, and Jones was, per the Times, "visibly unnerved" at the $150 million figure. He railed against the "show trial" during a break, ranting in a corridor outside the courtroom that it was a politically motivated kangaroo court and witch hunt, an action that brought a reprimand from the judge. He also duct-taped his mouth before the trial started, with "Save the 1st" written on the tape, a reference to the First Amendment. (More on the trial here.)