 The families of Sandy Hook victims sued Alex Jones of Info Wars for defamation after he claimed that that mass shooting was a false flag incident intended to galvanize wide-ranging support for a gun confiscation program. After he made these claims, his viewers harassed the families of these victims. And now he's going to have to pay up. So as Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times explains, a state court in Connecticut granted a sweeping victory to the families of eight people killed in a 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, suing the far-right broadcaster and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Info Wars media outlet for defamation. The judge ruled on Monday that because Mr. Jones refused to turn over documents ordered by the courts, including financial records, he was liable by default. The ruling combines with previous rulings in Texas to grant the families of 10 Sandy Hook shooting victims victories in all defamation lawsuits against Mr. Jones. Juries in both states will decide how much Mr. Jones should pay the families in damages, atop court costs. Those trials are scheduled for next year in both states. Now, according to the attorneys of Alex Jones, they will be appealing this, but for now this is a victory. This is good news because what he did was truly morally reprehensible. And just to put things into context for you in case you don't remember what he did, these families already dealt with the worst thing that any human being can possibly deal with. They lost their child, pain that is inconceivable. I can't even fathom what they were going through at that time. And then on top of that pain that they were already dealing with, that grief, Alex Jones decided to lie about the circumstances surrounding the death of the children in their family and his viewers harassed these families. It's truly disgusting on a number of levels, but one of the families involved in this defamation case who was harassed by Alex Jones' supporters while the father actually committed suicide back in 2019 tragically. Now, we don't necessarily know that this was specifically because of the harassment that he received because of Alex Jones' viewers. I mean, losing a child in and of itself is really, it's again, it's unfathomable, right? But I'm sure that it didn't help. So Alex Jones created even more pain for these families. And for that, he absolutely must pay damages. Now, during a divorce proceeding, his attorney claimed that Alex Jones wasn't actually a bad person. I mean, he was merely a performance artist simply playing a character. Now, during his deposition, he didn't necessarily claim explicitly that he was playing a character as his attorneys once did, but he claimed that he was possibly suffering from psychosis. And that's the reason why he decided to spread these disgusting lies about the victims of the Sandy Hook School shooting which caused pain and harassment. Take a look at what he said. And I've, you know, I myself have, you know, almost had like a pool of psychosis back in the past where I basically thought everything was staged. You know, I've now learned a lot of times things aren't staged. So, you know, I think as a pundit and someone giving opinion that, you know, my opinions have been wrong, but they were never wrong consciously to hurt people. Well, what I'm getting at is this stuff we're looking at today, kids going in circles, schools closed, emails, EMTs not in the building, porta-potties. These aren't comedy skits. This is journalism. Yes. Well, this is punditry because I wear a journalist hat, punditry hat, satire hat. Just, just reading news, just, you know, just, I mean, just being a news reader. I mean, I do that as well. So I do a lot of things. But when I was covering Sandy Hook, I was genuinely trying to get at the truth of it. Uh-huh. Sure. It's because of psychosis. That's why he used his massive platform to spread these lies about the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting. He is a really bad person. And, you know, after his lawyer said he's a performance artist, after he said, you know, I saw a false flag and everything. I was maybe suffering from psychosis. The sad part is that people are still going to take him seriously because it's not reasonable people who are watching Alex Jones unironically or hate watching him. The people who are watching Alex Jones believe what he has to say. And you think that perhaps this would maybe, uh, you know, reveal to him, to them that he's not a genuine person and he's lying. He's doing this for clicks and views and attention. But instead they'll think, well, since there's this effort to discredit Alex Jones and he's saying these things, I mean, he can't possibly be saying this on his own volition. It must be part of a conspiracy to silence him because he is indeed a truth teller telling the truth about things that the government doesn't want us to find out about. So this only, you know, makes them double down and triple down in believing that he is a truth teller. So if he genuinely feels bad, then he should just stop. He should stop everything shut down in full wars. Stop being a pundit because it's clearly causing pain. You're spreading disinformation and he knows about it. I don't care if you're a performance artist or if you were suffering from psychosis, whatever excuse he wants to use, what he's doing is negatively impacting society. And it's leading to people feeling real harm in particular the families of the Sandy Hook victims. So, you know, we don't necessarily know how much you'll have to pay in damages, but I hope that the victims, uh, or the families of victims take every single cent from this scumbag.