In mid-2018, the families of 10 victims filed four separate defamation lawsuits against Mr. Jones, later combined into three. Beyond stopping Mr. Jones, the families said the lawsuits aimed to draw attention to an explosion of harmful disinformation and false narratives spread by people with powerful social media platforms who were seldom held to account.
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Once an obscure conspiracy broadcaster in Austin, Texas, Mr. Jones garnered national attention in the aftermath of Sandy Hook, when his explosive defense of the Second Amendment brought him mainstream media coverage.
His staunch support for former President Donald J. Trump, who appeared on Mr. Jones’s show while a Republican candidate for president, ushered Mr. Jones from the extremist fringe to the center of Trump-era Republican politics.
He has had a role in spreading virtually every incendiary lie to dominate headlines over the past decade, including Pizzagate, the false claim that Democrats trafficked children from a Washington pizzeria; the “great replacement theory” that ignited deadly neo-Nazi violence in Charlottesville, Va.; Covid vaccine lies; and the 2020 presidential election falsehoods that brought a violent mob to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Today, nearly one-fifth of Americans believe high-profile mass shootings have been staged, usually by the government.
Mr. Jones is now under scrutiny by the Justice Department and the House Jan. 6 committee for his role in planning events adjacent to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, which he broadcast live.
Mr. Jones for years refused to supply analytical data, business records or testimony ordered by the courts in the lawsuits, which were filed in Texas, where Infowars is based, and the current one in Connecticut. Late last year judges in both states ruled him liable by default, granting the families a sweeping victory that set the current damages trials in motion.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/12/us/politics/alex-jones-sandy-hook-damages.html
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