Instead of being in the Connecticut courtroom when he was being ordered Wednesday to pay the families of Sandy Hook mass shooting victims almost $1 billion for insisting the massacre was a hoax, Alex Jones was hosting his Infowars show. That allowed him to mock the court and lobby his supporters for donations in real time, the New York Times reports. Calling the jury's defamation judgment "a joke," Jones asked, "Do these people actually think they're getting any money?" He implored his audience to "flood us with donations" and said he'll do a 16-hour show to "save Infowars."
The families, by contrast, listened to the recitation of the awards to the 15 plaintiffs in silence. When it was over, they hugged each other and wept. Jones said for years that Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed, was an actor, calling his tribute to her the next day "disgusting." Harassment and death threats followed for the mourning father. Parker's experience was the focus of the court case, and he was granted the largest award, $120 million. "Every day in that courtroom, we got up on the stand, and we told the truth," Parker said outside the courthouse. "Telling the truth shouldn’t be so hard, and it shouldn't be so scary."
The message of the judgment was clear, legal analysts told CNN. "It tells us that while there are limitations to our free speech, you cannot lie," said Mark Eiglarsh, a former prosecutor. "You cannot go way over the line and say lies about someone and inflict emotional distress upon people." Areva Martin, a CNN legal analyst, agreed that jurors intended to punish Jones, knowing that "there is no amount of money that can make these families whole." Next, the judge will consider punitive damages, which would be on top of Wednesday's judgment. (More Alex Jones stories.)
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