A judge on Thursday ordered far right wing extremist, conspiracy theorist, falsehoods promoter for profit, and Infowars founder Alex Jones to pay an additional $473 million for his lies in a case involving the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
The new $473 million order comes on top of the nearly $1 billion in damaged he was ordered to pay last month.
“Connecticut Judge Barabara Bellis imposed the punitive damages on the Infowars host and Free Speech Systems,” the Associated Press reports. “Jones repeatedly told his millions of followers the massacre that killed 20 first graders and six educators was staged by ‘crisis actors’ to enact more gun control.”
“Eight victims’ relatives and the FBI agent testified during a month-long trial about being threatened and harassed for years by people who deny the shooting happened. Strangers showed up at some of their homes and confronted some of them in public. People hurled abusive comments at them on social media and in emails. And some received death and rape threats,” the AP adds.
Reuters has confirmed the $473 million amount.
Just one month ago Jones was ordered to pay $965 million in damages after a jury returned a unanimous verdict in a consolidated case. Jones for years had falsely claimed the 20 young children and six adults slaughtered while in their elementary school were “crisis actors.”
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