Alex Jones Deserves To Spend The Rest Of His Life In Misery

Because Alex Jones repeatedly claimed that the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary that took the lives of 20 children was “staged,” Scarlett Lewis not only had to grieve the loss of her 6-year-old son, Jesse, she also had to contend with harassment from people who believed her child’s death was faked.

On the day of the massacre, Jones claimed on his Infowars platform: “Don’t ever think this couldn’t be staged.”

Let Jones tell it at the time, the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax concocted by the government to go after guns. When Lewis testified at the defamation trial she and other parents filed against Jones, she reportedly looked directly in his eyes and said: “I wanted to tell you to your face.… I am a mother, first and foremost, and I know you’re a father. And my son existed.”

Lewis told Jones, a man who has long trafficked in conspiracy theories for money: “I know you know that, and that’s the problem.”

That sentiment alone best explains how a suit that sought at least $150 million in damages resulted in the jury rewarding Jones’ plaintiffs $1.5 billion. How much money the families really get is up for debate. Jones is said to have only $9 million in assets, so there will only be so much for them to collect.

Moreover, because there was a separate suit filed by a different set of families that was also awarded damages, there will be more legal wrangling before any money is ever dispensed. Last week, a bankruptcy judge ruled Alex Jones does not yet have to turn over the Infowars bank accounts to the Sandy Hook families he owes millions.

What’s been described in The New York Times as an “increasingly acrimonious battle between two groups of Sandy Hook families” has, to Jones’ delight, delayed the shuttering of