Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is seeking a new trial after a jury ordered him earlier this month to pay the families of Sandy Hook school shooting victims $965 million in damages for falsely claiming the massacre was a hoax.
filed Friday, Jones asked a Connecticut judge to throw out the verdict against him and his company, and to order a new trial.Judge Barbara Bellis' pretrial rulings resulted in an unfair trial and that jurors were presented with "half-truths," leading to "a substantial miscarriage of justice.": His attorneys, Norm Pattis and Kevin Smith, wrote in the motion that the verdict is "both unjust and against the weight of the evidence.
"Additionally, the amount of the compensatory damages award exceeds any rational relationship to the evidence offered at trial," they said.: Jones, primarily through his website and radio show Infowars, falsely claimed for years the shooting was a "false flag" operation planned by the government using "crisis actors" to undermine gun rights, Axios' Jacob Knutson reports.
He has since been found liable in other defamation lawsuits from family members of Sandy Hook victims.
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