Infowars' Alex Jones Found Guilty in Sandy Hook Defamation Cases

The Infowars host has repeatedly called the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, in which 26 people lost their life, a "giant hoax".

A Connecticut judge has found Alex Jones guilty by default in four defamation cases filed by the families of Sandy Hook shooting victims. The default means the judge ruled in favour of the plaintiffs and will hold a hearing on how much Jones should pay in damages.

Lawyers for the parents of the children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 said Jones and his companies, including Infowars, breached court rules by failing to hand over documents to them showing how, and whether, the radio host and Infowars profited from talking about that particular massacre and other mass shootings.

“Their pattern of defying and ignoring court orders to produce responsive information is well established,” lawyers for the family wrote in a court brief in July.

Attorneys for Jones have denied violating court orders and called for Judge Barbara Bellis to be taken off the case, claiming she has been biased.

Last month, a similar ruling was made by a Texas judge, after Jones reportedly refused to produce documents for the court cases.

Texas Judge Maya Guerra Gamble said: “The court finds that defendants’ failure to comply … is greatly aggravated by [their] consistent pattern of discovery abuse throughout similar cases pending before this court. The court finds that defendants’ discovery conduct in this case is the result of flagrant bad faith and callous disregard for the responsibilities of discovery under the rule."

Jones has consistently claimed that the Sandy Hook shooting was a "hoax" and "it just pretty much didn't happen". According to the radio host, it was made up by gun control supporters and the mainstream media.

Families of some victims sued Jones, Infowars and a handful of conspiracy theorists in courts in Texas and Connecticut over the hoax claims, saying they have been subjected to harassment and death threats from Jones’ followers.

On 14 December 2012, 20 children between the ages of six and seven, as well as six adult staff, were killed in a gun massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the US state of Connecticut, one of the deadliest mass shootings in US history.