FILE- In this Sept. 5, 2018, file photo conspiracy theorist Alex Jones speaks outside of the Dirksen building of Capitol Hill in Washington. On Dec. 20, 2019, a Texas judge ordered Jones to pay $100,000 in legal fees in another setback to the Infowars host, who is being sued by families of children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting for calling the attack a hoax. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas judge ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay $100,000 in another court setback over the Infowars host using his show to promote falsehoods that the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax.
Jones is being sued for defamation in Austin, Texas, by the parents of a 6-year-old who was among the 26 people killed in the Newtown, Connecticut, attack.
State District Judge Scott Jenkins ruled on Dec. 20 that Jones and his defense team “intentionally disregarded” an earlier order to provide witnesses to attorneys representing a Sandy Hook father who brought the lawsuit, Neil Heslin. Jenkins also denied Jones’ request to dismiss the lawsuit.
An attorney for Jones did not immediately comment Tuesday. Jenkins’ orders were first reported by The Daily Beast.
Jones operates Infowars in Texas. He is fighting similar lawsuits in Connecticut brought by other families of Sandy Hook victims for promoting a theory that the shooting was a hoax. A 20-year-old gunman killed 20 first-graders, six educators and himself at the school, after having killed his mother at their Newtown home.
The families said they have been subjected to harassment and death threats from Jones’ followers because of the hoax conspiracy.
Jones has since acknowledged that the Sandy Hook killings occurred. His attorneys have defended his speech in court as “rhetorical hyperbole” and deny it was defamation.
In June, the father of 6-year-old Noah Pozner, one of the Sandy Hook victims, won a defamation lawsuit against the authors of a book that claimed the shooting never happened.
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