U S Supreme Court nixes Alex Jones appeal in Sandy Hook shooting defamation case chicagotribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chicagotribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Adam KlasfeldApr 5th, 2021, 11:39 am
The Supreme Court rejected an attempt by conspiracy theorist
Alex Jones to overturn sanctions affirmed by the Connecticut Supreme Court for his threatening rant against a lawyer for the Sandy Hook victims’ families who sued him for defamation.
The ruling adds to the string of losses that Jones racked up in multiple jurisdictions, where a mountain of potential legal liabilities threatens to bury his empire of conspiracy theories and fake homeopathic cures.
Roughly three years ago,
Erica Lafferty the daughter of the Sandy Hook Elementary School principal gunned down in the mass shooting sued Jones and his InfoWars media empire for repeatedly and falsely claiming on his show that her mother and other victims of the attack were “crisis actors” sent to undermine the Second Amendment. Eight families and an FBI agent who responded to the shooting joined the lawsuit.
The U.S. Supreme Court turned down Jones’ request to hear his appeal without comment.
Jones’ attorney, Norman Pattis, called the court s decision “a disappointment.”
“Judge Bellis, and the Connecticut Supreme Court, asserted frightening and standardless power over the extrajudicial statements of litigants,” Pattis said in an email to The Associated Press. “Mr. Jones never threatened anyone; had he done so, he would have been charged with a crime. We are inching our way case-by-case toward a toothless, politically correct, First Amendment.”
Joshua Koskoff, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, said Jones deserved to be sanctioned for his threatening comments on his show.
Supreme Court nixes Alex Jonesâ appeal in Sandy Hook shooting case FILE- In this Sept. 5, 2018, file photo Alex Jones speaks outside of the Dirksen building of Capitol Hill in Washington. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, April 5, 2021, declined to hear an appeal by the Infowars host and conspiracy theorist, who was fighting a Connecticut court sanction in a defamation lawsuit brought by relatives of some of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. (Source: AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File) By DAVE COLLINS | April 5, 2021 at 11:04 AM CDT - Updated April 5 at 11:04 AM
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) â The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal by Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who was fighting a Connecticut court sanction in a defamation lawsuit brought by relatives of some of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal by Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who was fighting a Connecticut court sanction in a defamation lawsuit brought by relatives of some of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.