Jones had offered to pay each of the plaintiffs $120,000. However, his tentative settlement was quickly rejected.
Conspiracy theorist and Infowars host Alex Jones offered to pay the relatives of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims up to $120,000 per plaintiff to settle claims in the families’ defamation lawsuit.
However, Jones’s offer was quickly rejected.
According to The Associated Press, a Connecticut judge has already found Jones liable for damages, the amount of which shall be determined in trial.
A trial date is tentatively scheduled later this summer.
As LegalReader.com has reported before, Sandy Hook families claim that Jones spread malicious conspiracy theories, suggesting that the mass shooting was staged using crisis actors.
While Jones eventually backed off his claims, he maintained that the massacre was a false-flag operation designed to strip Americans of their Second Amendment rights.
Many of the plaintiffs say they received death threats from Jones’s followers.
Jones and his attorneys have since apologized for the families’ emotional suffering.
“Mr. Jones extends his heartfelt apology for any distress his remarks caused,” his attorneys wrote in court filings.
However, the Sandy Hook families had little interest in accepting Jones’s settlement offer. People notes that each of the 13 plaintiffs issued individual letters in response to the conspiracy theorist’s proposal, saying they reject the offer “in full.”
“The so-called offer is a transparent and desperate attempt by Alex Jones to escape a public reckoning under oath with his deceitful, profit-driven campaign against the plaintiffs and the memory of their loved ones lost at Sandy Hook,” the letters said.
Jones has so far managed to avoid giving testimony. Last week, the conspiracy missed two separate court-ordered depositions, citing vague “medical concerns.”
Christopher Mattei, an attorney representing the families, said it is evident that Jones has continued manufacturing excuses to avoid public humiliation.
“This, in our view, was a cowardly display intended to cheat the plaintiffs of their right to put him under oath,” attorney Christopher Mattei said, “and ask him questions about why over the course of many years he lied about them, he lied about the loved ones that they lost at Sandy Hook and why he unleashed a barrage of harassment over many years that continues to this day.”
While the Sandy Hook families have yet to receive any damages from Jones, a federal bankruptcy judge recently approved their $73 million settlement with firearms manufacturer Remington, which sold the AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle used by shooter Adam Lanza in the attack.
The settlement will require that Remington’s insurers, rather than the company itself, provide payouts to the victims’ surviving relatives.
Sources
Sandy Hook Families’ $73 Million Deal With Remington Approved
Sandy Hook Families Reject Alex Jones’ ‘Desperate’ Offer to Settle Defamation Case
Join the conversation!