The Supreme Court rejected radio host Alex Emerick Jones’ attempt to overturn the ruling against him, which forces him to pay $1,400 million dollars for falsely reporting that the attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School, where 20 first graders and six educators died, was a hoax.
The 51-year-old Texan went to the Supreme Court to emphasize that his statements were “taken out of context” and the judge did not give enough weight to his arguments based on the First Amendment, which sentenced him to what he calls “a financial death sentence.”
In 2022, juries in Connecticut and Texas found Jones liable for defamation and emotional distress caused to the victims’ families.
The presenter suggested on more than one occasion during his online programs that the violent incident recorded in 2012 was a “prepared event.”
However, given the magnitude of his sanction, a team of lawyers in charge of defending his interests filed an appeal hoping that justice would be lenient with its ruling.
“Alex Jones is a media defendant entitled to all the press freedom protections of the First Amendment,” states one of the grounds of his appeal.
However, The Supreme Court justices did not find his arguments compelling, a position praised by Chris Mattei, an attorney representing the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary victims.
“The Supreme Court duly rejected Jones’s latest desperate attempt to evade responsibility for the harm he has caused. We look forward to enforcing the jury’s historic verdict and making Jones and Infowars pay for what they have done,” he said.
Although justice is on the side of the people who sued the presenter, the amount they will receive has not yet been determined nor the date when that will occur.
It should be noted that those affected requested to sell the assets of Free Speech Systems, a company owned by Alex Jones, in order to obtain the money necessary to cover the sanction established in their case.
However, a judge clarified that these assets are not part of the bankruptcy estate.
Keep reading:
• Alex Jones must pay $1.44 million to victims of the Sandy Hook school massacre for defamation
• Jones would support a presidential candidacy of Ron DeSantis, turning his back on Trump
• Alex Jones sentenced to pay $4 million for lying about Sandy Hook shooting
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