Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is finished. After years of spreading lies and conspiracies about the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre, the InfoWars host decided not to even present a defense in the latest defamation suit against him – proving once again that the shameless grifter is nothing but a coward.
According to the , “his lawyers rested without putting on evidence or witnesses after attorneys for the families wrapped up their case,” concluding 13 days of emotional testimony from an FBI agent at the scene and from more than a dozen family members. Instead, Jones headed back to his home state of Texas before closing arguments even began.
“Jones’ attorney, Norm Pattis, told the judge that his client was boycotting the proceedings because he feels he’s being asked to either commit perjury, be held in contempt of court or invoke his rights not to answer questions under the Fifth Amendment,” the Associated Press wrote.
For a decade, Jones has dismissed the tragedy – calling it a hoax and accusing the grieving parents and survivors of being crisis actors – which led to harassment and death threats for the victims, compounding their grief.
Jones has already lost one defamation suit when a Texas jury awarded close to $50 million in damages – $4.1 million compensatory, and $45.2 million punitive – to the parents of deceased six-year-old victim Jesse Lewis – Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin.
The last plaintiff to testify, Mark Barden, father of seven-year-old Daniel who was killed in the elementary school tragedy, “tried Tuesday to describe for a jury the distress he felt when he learned conspiracy theorists planned to dig up his 7-year-old son’s grave to prove the mass shooting never happened,” the Associated Press reported.
“This is so sacrosanct and hallowed a place for my family and to hear that people were desecrating it and urinating on it and threatening to dig it up, I don’t know how to articulate to you what that feels like,” Barden told the jury. “But that’s where we are.”
The Donald Trump sycophant was found guilty in absentia for failing to show up and face his accusers – who say the internet show host’s baseless lies caused the families “intentional emotional distress.” A six-person jury is deliberating to decide how much Jones will have to pay the plaintiffs. Whatever it is, you can guarantee it won’t be nearly enough to compensate for the pain inflicted on families already suffering immeasurable pain.
Two years after text messages “accidentally” sent to the plaintiffs’ attorneys in the chaos agent’s Texas trial revealed intimate exchanges with Trump-pardoned felon Roger Stone – a person of interest in multiple criminal and civil investigations into the ex-President’s attempts to overthrow the government – the Sandy Hook families and victims will be looking forward to seeing Jones both broke and incarcerated, if justice truly prevails.
Original reporting by Dave Collins and Pat Eaton-Robb at Associated Press.
Follow Ty Ross on Twitter @cooltxchick
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