For years, Alex Jones trumpeted to his millions of followers that the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, USA, in 2012 never took place.
Now he has been forced to take back his statements, as he faces over $150 million in damages for false claims.
“Participated unintentionally”
The trial against Jones, who broadcasts web television and publishes podcasts on his site Infowars, began two weeks ago. Parents of children shot and killed in the massacre have sued him for falsely claiming the massacre was a hoax, that no children were killed and that it was all staged to curtail gun rights.
In the final day of the trial, Jones admits under oath that he realizes it was irresponsible and that the deadly school shooting was “one hundred percent real.”
— I inadvertently participated in things that hurt these people’s feelings, says Jones, while admitting that he also spread conspiratorial claims about other national tragedies.
— And I’m sorry for that.
New threat
The damages are a new threat to Jones’ business operations. He has already been banned from Youtube, Facebook and Spotify for violating the platforms’ rules against hate speech.
Jones must also pay damages in a separate defamation case to other parents of victims of the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. The lawsuit filings did not specify an exact amount Jones must pay.
Courts in Texas and Connecticut have already found him guilty of libel for describing the Sandy Hook massacre as a hoax staged by actors.
In the school shooting, one of the deadliest in US history, 20 elementary students and six teachers were killed. Followers of the conspiracy theorist have harassed and threatened to kill relatives of the victims.