The U.S. Supreme Court has denied right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ request to overturn a $1.5 billion defamation judgment against him.
Jones was ordered to pay compensation in 2022 for claiming the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 20 students and six educators dead was fraudulent.
To pay for it, Jones had to sell his Infowars media company to the satirical news site The Onion. He told the nation’s highest court that the sale would cause irreparable harm to him and his audience of 30 million people.
Jones has not yet paid the damages he owes Sandy Hook families.
The Supreme Court did not explain its decision to deny his request.
Jones’ lawyers argued that Jones should have the same protections as journalists under the First Amendment, including freedom of expression. And Jones argued the financial consequences were too steep.
“The result was a fiat financial death sentence for media defendants who broadcast in the millions,” he told the Supreme Court on appeal.
“The court has appropriately rejected Jones’ latest desperate attempt to avoid responsibility for the harm he has caused,” Chris Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook family, said in a statement to the BBC.
“We look forward to executing the jury’s historic verdict and making Jones and Infowars pay for what they did.”
The Onion’s attempt to acquire Infowars was dismissed by a bankruptcy judge last year, but Infowars could soon be put up for sale again, giving The Onion another chance.
Legal pressure is mounting on Jones after two jurors found him liable for defamation and emotional distress over his lies about the Sandy Hook school shooting.
After the first judgment in Connecticut, Jones filed for bankruptcy protection in Texas and Infowars was auctioned off to pay Sandy Hook families who sued to collect on the judgment.
It was in a Texas court filing that Jones acknowledged that the attack was “100% real.” He previously claimed the massacre was “staged” as part of a government plot to take guns away from Americans and that “no one was killed.”
