Warning of Infowars takeover, Alex Jones asks SCOTUS to block $1.5B defamation judgment

WASHINGTON (CN) — Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to block his $1.5 billion defamation judgment for spreading false claims that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax.

Jones filed for bankruptcy in 2022. The yearslong saga took a turn in 2024 when the satirical news outlet The Onion bid on Jones’ Infowars assets and broadcast rights. The paper’s joint bid with the Connecticut families was dismissed, but Jones says a second effort is underway.

“Without a stay now … Infowars will have been acquired by its ideological nemesis and destroyed — which Jones believes is the plaintiffs’ intention,” Jones wrote in his emergency appeal at the Supreme Court.

Jones popularized the right-wing conspiracy that the Sandy Hook shooting, which killed 20 children and six adults, was a so-called false flag. Jones mocked the parents whose children were murdered, claiming they were actors whose children were alive and well.

Devotees of Infowars believed his lies, leading to years of threats and harassment against the victims’ families. Erica Lafferty, the daughter of slain Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung, testified that people mailed rape threats to her house. Mark Barden told of how conspiracy theorists had urinated on the grave of his 7-year-old son, Daniel, and threatened to dig up the coffin.

Jones was found guilty of defamation in multiple lawsuits filed by the families, including a Connecticut jury that awarded the families $1 billion in damages. The judge added nearly $500,000 in punitive damages.

After efforts to overturn the judgment failed in the lower courts, Jones pushed the Supreme Court to hit pause on collections so the justices could review his appeal. Jones says his promotion of the false flag conspiracy was constitutionally protected reporting on a matter of public concern.

The Supreme Court’s landmark 1964 ruling in New York Times v. Sullivan set a high bar for libel lawsuits against journalists, forcing public officials to show actual malice to prevail. Under the standard, a public official must prove a reporter knew that a statement was false or was reckless in deciding to publish the information without investigating whether it was accurate.

Jones’ false flag claims were widely debunked by news organizations, law enforcement, public officials and the victims’ families. Despite all available evidence, he continued to spread the claims about the victims and their families.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to review Jones’ certiorari petition on Friday, but it’s unclear when the justices will issue a decision on the appeal.

In a parallel lawsuit from two Texas parents, a state court ordered Jones to turn over all assets related to the parent company of his Infowars.

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