Alex Jones And All The Money in the World

Alex Jones

The verdict is in and Alex Jones now owes a hell of a lot of money:

Alex Jones and Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, must pay close to $1 billion to the family members of eight victims of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary and an F.B.I. agent who responded to the scene of the 2012 massacre, which killed 20 first graders and six educators.

Mr. Jones had been found liable for defamation after he spent years falsely describing the shooting as a hoax and accusing the victims’ families of being actors complicit in the plot. As a result, the families were threatened in person and online. He used his Infowars platform to spread these lies.

I have no idea if this verdict will hold up and where Jones goes from here. According to the NYT, the law under which he was sued has no cap on punitive damages. And this is only the second of three trials he’s facing (he also lost the first one). I’m sure his lawyers will be fighting it tooth and nail.

Regardless of the verdict, the trial did expose one thing, ably express by our own R. Tod Kelly.

For years I was on the fence with the Mentally Disturbed True Believer vs Grifter debate about Jones, but if nothing else these trials have shown the guy believes in nothing but enriching himself and knows exactly what he's doing when he does it. https://t.co/3Jwmtf8Bad

— Schrödinger's Sneetch Belly (@RTodKelly) October 11, 2022

I think this is exactly right. The trial made two things clear: that the Sandy Hook families were subject to horrendous abuse and suffering because of Alex Jones. And that he did not care. All he cared about was the money flowing into his coffers from pushing these disgusting lies.

In the end, no amount of money can ease the suffering of the Sandy Hook families. But what it can do is give them some closure. A jury found that Alex Jones was a liar; a malicious one who went out of his way to inflict harm on them for his own personal gain. Free speech rights are very well protected in this country and there’s a high bar to clear to hold someone liable for their speech. The jury said, in clear and unequivocal terms, that Alex Jones cleared that bar. And then some.

I hope that at least some of this financial pain is actually visited upon Alex Jones. All the Sandy Hook families ever wanted was to grieve the most horrific loss anyone can imagine. And maybe for their suffering to motivate people to prevent a future tragedy. Jones and his disciples made their lives hell. All for a little bit of money.