The US Supreme Court has rejected a request from right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to overturn the nearly $1.5 billion (£1.1 billion) defamation judgment against him.
Jones was ordered to make the payout in 2022 for claiming the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School - which killed 20 schoolchildren and six educators - was a hoax.
To fulfill this payout, Jones was forced to sell his Infowars media company to the satirical news site The Onion. He argued to the Supreme Court that this sale would cause irreparable harm to him and his audience of 30 million.
Jones has yet to pay any damages owed to the Sandy Hook families.
The Supreme Court did not explain its decision to deny Jones' request. His lawyers argued for free speech protections under the First Amendment, claiming that the financial burdens were excessively punitive.
Jones described the judgment as a financial death penalty by fiat imposed on someone whose broadcasts reach millions.
Chris Mattei, representing the Sandy Hook families, stated that the court “properly rejected” Jones's latest attempt to evade accountability, expressing a commitment to enforce the jury's historic verdict.
Despite the setback, there may still be another opportunity for The Onion to acquire Infowars, which had its previous attempt rejected in bankruptcy court last year.
Legal pressures against Jones have intensified since he was found liable for defamation and emotional distress regarding his incorrect assertions about the Sandy Hook massacre. After an initial verdict in Connecticut, Jones filed for bankruptcy protection in Texas, leading to an auction of Infowars intended to repay the Sandy Hook families.
During a Texas court hearing, Jones acknowledged that the attack was 100% real, contradicting his prior claims that it was staged to promote an anti-gun agenda.
