Alex Jones’ Infowars Set to Make $800,000 in Sales, One Week After Sandy Hook Trial
Infowars is set to make $800,000 in sales this week after the defamation trial over his Sandy Hook school shooting conspiracy theories.
The Wall Street Journal had the report this morning on the payment. Free Speech Systems LLC, Infowars’ parent company, is set to make $800,000 one week after a jury ruled against founder Alex Jones in a civil suit brought against him by the parents of a child who was killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn.
The jury in the civil case brought against Jones by Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, who lost their 6-year-old son Jesse Lewis, determined Jones must pay $4.1 million in compensatory damages and $45.2 million in punitive damages. Jones repeatedly spread conspiracy theories about the shooting that left 20 children dead, calling the massacre a hoax and its victims and their families “crisis actors.”
Free Speech Systems LLC filed for bankruptcy last month, its second time doing so.
During the trial, an economist testified that Jones’ net worth could be as much as $270 million.
Following the compensatory damages ruling, Jones posted a video on Infowars, begging his followers to buy InfoWars products. Jones said the judgment is “more money than my company and I personally have. But we are going to work on trying to make restitution there.”
Jones said Infowars is “in bankruptcy right now. We’re maxed out. We can barely keep the crew employed. We are fighting hard for your First Amendment, your Second Amendment, your 10th Amendment, your sovereignty.”
InfoWars has “a plan to stay on air through this bankruptcy. We have a reorganization plan,” Jones said, before warning “if you don’t fund us, if you don’t buy products at infowarsstore.com, we will shut down.”
During the trial, lawyers for the Sandy Hook parents questioned Jones’s claims about his dire financial straits. They obtained documents showing Infowars has made more than $800,000 per day from merchandise ranging from dietary supplements to survivalist gear.
