Alex Jones, the far-right conspiracy theorist with a longstanding media presence led by the site Infowars, could go on trial two more times over lies he’s helped propagate about certain school shootings the U.S. has suffered. The trials would take place according to the terms of a potential agreement that would send those involved to court if a settlement isn’t reached by the end of August.
Like with previous trials that Jones has faced, the proceedings would be meant to simply settle on the level of financial penalties to impose on the conspiracy theorist. Before this series of trials, Jones faced a series of judgments against him by default after he failed to comply with requirements from court for the discovery process, which is the pretrial period when relevant evidence, whether testimony or docs, is produced. The trials roughly on that basis that have already happened have already left Jones facing some $1.5 billion in penalties after underlying legal challenges from individuals including parents of victims of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Jones helped further the always delusional idea that the incident didn’t really happen as alleged and was instead essentially staged to provide a pretext for gun control. Families of the deceased and others connected to what happened have been left with repeating threats of violence from evident believers of Jones’s strange claims.
The remaining legal claims Jones is facing, which could result in those additional trials in the event of no settlement emerging by August 31, include a challenge over a false identification alleging an individual named Marcel Fontaine was the shooter in a 2018 attack at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Fontaine died in a structural blaze in Massachusetts, where he lived, but his legal challenge is continuing on behalf of his estate.
Christopher Lopez, a bankruptcy judge who has been handling proceedings around Jones, will soon issue a decision on whether to accept the terms of the preliminary agreement that would set the August deadline for a settlement covering those additional claims. The remaining claims against Jones also include another challenge from parents of a Sandy Hook victim. Read more here.
