Alex Jones is going back on trial and could face paying out millions in damages again
Topics: Conspiracy Theories, US News, Crime, Politics
Tom Fenton
Featured Image Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo
Topics: Conspiracy Theories, US News, Crime, Politics
Infowars founder Alex Jones is preparing to take to the stand for a second time as the lawsuits against him continue to pile up.
Fresh from a trial which saw him ordered to pay the parents of the Sandy Hook victims $49 million, Jones will be back in a court room to defend himself on Tuesday (13 September), only this time in will be in the US state of Connecticut.
Th upcoming trial will mirror that of the first in many ways, as it also involves the parents of Sandy Hook victims - where 27 people (mostly children) were killed by a gunman.
According to the families, the 48-year-old conspiracy theorist caused "emotional and physical harm" by insinuating that the mass 2012 shooting was a hoax.
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The upcoming trial is expected to last around month, with a six-member jury (plus alternates) hearing evidence for the first time on Tuesday.
While Jones has already been ordered to pay damages to one of the families, the Connecticut case, which takes place in the state where the shooting happened, has the potential to yield a larger award for those who filed the lawsuit.
As AP News state, three separate lawsuits - involving 15 plaintiffs - have been consolidated on this occasion. The plaintiffs include the relatives of eight victims, as well as a former FBI agent who responded to the shooting.
Last month, the Texas court heard testimony from Neil Heslin, the father of six-year-old Jesse Lewis who died at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Heslin described the 'living hell that I and others have had to endure because of the recklessness and negligence of Alex Jones'.
A third trial against Jones could also go under way in the coming months, after a family from Texas have filed a lawsuit of their own against the former radio host.
As the founder of InfoWars, Jones quickly became the most recognisable conspiracy theorist of the age in the 2000s, with much of his early content being uploaded to YouTube.
However, the fall out from his suggestions that Sandy Hook was a hoax led to him being deplatformed by just about every major social media company.
Since the blanket ban, he has largely been restricted to posting on Infowars.com, with only the odd appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience bringing him back in front of a mainstream audience.
The second trial is set to feature testimonies from the relatives of Sandy Hook victims, who are expected to detail the pain and anguish that was caused by Jones' harmful rhetoric.
However, Jones himself will also be taking to the stand, in much the same way as he did in the Texas trial last month.
He famously said during last month's deposition: “If questioning public events and free speech is banned because it might hurt somebody’s feelings, we are not in America anymore.
“They can change the channel. They can come out and say I’m wrong. They have free speech.”
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