A Defamation Battle Between Alex Jones and the Families of Sandy Hook Victims
July 31, 2022 – Media MentionDoug Mirell, a litigation partner and free speech expert, shared his insights on the defamation trials in which Alex Jones, the host of the InfoWars podcast, is being sued by the families of some of the victims of the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The family of one of those child victims is seeking $150 million in damages ($75 million in compensatory damages, and an additional $75 million in punitive damages) in a trial currently pending in Texas.
Excerpt:
Anchor: "Do First Amendment protections apply to Alex Jones?"
Mirell: "Well, they do, but he has already been found to have libeled the deceased children’s parents when he made false statements about ‘crisis actors’ and other conspiratorial claims concerning the massacre at Sandy Hook. Since liability has already been determined, this trial and the two forthcoming trials are really all about quantifying the trauma and other damage suffered by these surviving parents."