Infowars host Alex Jones now owes nearly $1 billion, plus punitive damages, to 15 plaintiffs who sued him in 海角换妻. It鈥檚 the second time a jury this year has held Jones accountable for the lies he told about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Since the day it happened, Jones has dismissed the tragedy as a government-sponsored 鈥渇alse flag鈥� to promote gun control. He鈥檚 called relatives of victims, including some of the 15 plaintiffs who sued him in 海角换妻, actors.
Jordan Gomes knows how very real the shooting was. She was a fourth grader at Sandy Hook when 20 children and six adults were killed at the school.
鈥淚 think the fact that they were able to bring him down in court and hold him accountable for the disgusting things that he was saying, it really sends a message of strength throughout this community and shows that we protect each other and we protect the memory of those who passed, and that we won't stand for it,鈥� she said.
Jones and Free Speech Systems, the company he owns, were found liable for defamation last November. The trial concluded Wednesday with a verdict that ordered Jones to pay $965 million in compensatory damages to a former FBI agent and relatives of eight victims killed in the shooting.
Gomes, who said she was shocked at the sum of money, said that while you can鈥檛 put a price tag on loss, the verdict is important to her community.
Gomes was not directly involved in the lawsuit, but she鈥檚 seen the harm Jones鈥� comments have caused over the years.
鈥淗is ideology did not just exist on the internet in a comment section somewhere, or on his show,鈥� Gomes said. 鈥淧eople would come up to me and force me to, or at least attempt to, defend myself to prove to them that I had been there, to defend my stance, defend my grief, to prove that my community even existed sometimes in the first place.鈥�
Though she said many people have walked away from conversations with her with a different mentality, others have not. And she鈥檚 skeptical that this will be the end of conspiracy theorists, but she hopes this sets a precedent.
鈥淔reedom of speech is not freedom of consequences,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hile he and his supporters are correct in the sense that they can physically say whatever they please, it does not protect them from being held accountable for lies. The threats and the harassment that the families face, threats to visit their homes, even threats to bodily harm that were levied against many members of my community 鈥� that is not freedom of speech.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;
Now a sophomore in college, Gomes is a gun violence prevention activist.
