A Texas appeals court drastically reduced the amount of money Austin-based conspiracy theorist Alex Jones owes to victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.
The Third Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the $50 million previously awarded to two Connecticut families targeted by Jones' Infowars platform was an overstep, reducing the amount owed to $1.5 million between the two parties.
Jones consistently called the 2012 shooting that left 20 schoolchildren and six adults dead a hoax. He repeatedly called families "crisis actors" on his Infowars platform and Jones' supporters harassed Sandy Hook families for years. Jones later said a "form of psychosis" led him to push the narrative that the shooting was a ploy by the government to restrict gun rights.
The families successfully sued Jones for defamation in 2022 and he filed for bankruptcy shortly after. A Connecticut judge also sided with families, ordering Jones pay $1.4 billion in damages. Friday's ruling in Texas does not impact the Connecticut case.
The ruling ends a back-and-forth over legal damages in Texas courts for now. Jones has been repeatedly knocked by a bankruptcy court in Houston and a Travis County court for failing to provide evidence throughout the proceedings, and families successfully pleaded the Travis County judge award more than Texas' $750,000 cap on damages in 2023.
The Third Court's ruling Friday said that plaintiffs didn't prove their damages should exceed the state's cap on damages, reducing the money owed to $750,000 to each family.
Jones' assets — including his Infowars platform — have been tied up in his bankruptcy case for years. A court ordered Jones shut down Infowars in May. The satirical publication The Onion effectively took over the brand to parody Jones last month after years of trying to acquire the brand. Onion CEO Ben Collins told KUT's Austin Signal the goal of the takeover was to mock Jones' brand of brash misinformation and provide some money to Sandy Hook families.
"He reached the line a long time ago when he started saying people who died in a mass shooting in a school wasn't real," Collins said. "And that is not a joke to me. That is evil and weird."
The Onion's attempted takeover of Infowars is still playing out in a Travis County court.
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