Less than one month after a panel of Connecticut jurors ordered conspiracy theorist and media mogul Alex Jones to pay nearly one billion dollars in compensatory damages to eight families who lost loved ones in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, Judge Barbara Bellis on Thursday imposed an additional $473 million in punitive damages on the longtime Infowars host.
"The record clearly supports the plaintiffs' argument that the defendant's conduct was intentional and malicious, and certain to cause harm by virtue of their infrastructure, ability to spread content, and massive audience including the ïnfowarriors," The Associated Press reported Bellis wrote in her ruling. She cited the emotional toll endured by the families as a result of Jones' repeated claims that the mass shooting was staged, or a "false flag" operation. Jones had previously criticized the more than $900 million damages against him as being part of a "show trial" orchestrated by a "completely out of control" left-wing in American society.
This summer, Jones was ordered to pay $45 million in punitive damages as part of a separate lawsuit brought by the parents of a Sandy Hook victim in Texas. He also faces a third trial over his Sandy Hook broadcasts, which is scheduled to begin in the coming months.