Alex Jones Wins Partial Texas Appeal but Still Owes Over $1 Billion

A Texas appeals court has reduced the punitive damages Alex Jones must pay to the families of Sandy Hook victims, but the conspiracy theorist still faces more than $1 billion in total judgments. The ruling, issued Friday, cut the punitive portion of the Texas award from over $40 million to $1.5 million, leaving about $6 million intact. The court did not overturn the underlying defamation finding.

Jones, who founded the Infowars platform, has long claimed the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was staged with "crisis actors" — a falsehood that led to lawsuits in both Connecticut and Texas. Families of the 20 children and six educators killed in the shooting testified that Jones' followers subjected them to death threats, harassment, and abuse.

While Jones called the Texas ruling a victory for free speech and vowed to continue appealing, the decision does not affect the larger Connecticut case. There, a jury awarded more than $1.4 billion, later reduced to $1.25 billion. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Jones' appeal last year.

Mark Bankston, an attorney for the Texas families, dismissed the ruling as irrelevant, noting that Jones still faces over a billion dollars in liability. "All it does is highlight the absurdity of Texas law," he said.

Jones has not paid any of the damages while appeals continue. He filed for bankruptcy in 2022, which forced him to surrender his Infowars platform. He continues to broadcast on other websites and sell merchandise, generating millions annually.

The satirical website The Onion has moved to take over Infowars' assets, proposing a licensing deal that would turn the site into parody. That deal is on hold during Jones' appeals, but The Onion has already launched its own Infowars parody page, selling products with proceeds going to Sandy Hook families.