On Wednesday, a Connecticut jury ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay $965 million in damages for falsely claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting was staged.
The verdict applies to both Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems LLC (FSS), the owner of Jones’ Infowars website. In July, FSS filed for bankruptcy.
Jones has vowed to appeal the verdict and said that his company’s ongoing bankruptcy will protect Infowars.
In December 2012, twenty children between six and seven years old, and six adult staff members were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
For years, Jones claimed that the massacre was staged as part of a government scheme to take away Americans’ guns.
The families suffered a decade-long campaign of harassment and death threats from Jones’ followers, according to Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the families.
In August, a Texas jury found Jones and his company guilty in a similar case, and ordered to pay $49.3 million to two other Sandy Hook parents.
