Jury deciding how much money Alex Jones will pay Sandy Hook families for years of lies

Amna Nawaz:

A Connecticut jury will soon decide how much money conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has to pay families from the Sandy Hook shooting. That's part of a defamation suit after Jones called the shooting a hoax and the victims' families actors.

The Infowars host spread those lies for years before apologizing during an earlier trial this summer. Now he could be on the hook for millions of dollars.

Stephanie Sy has the details.

Stephanie Sy:

Amna, Alex Jones lost four defamation lawsuits filed by Sandy Hook families late last year.

The trial in Connecticut is the second of three trials for juries to decide on how much money Jones must pay in damages. A previous jury in Texas ordered he pay $50 million to a Sandy Hook family. During this trial in Connecticut, where the shootings occurred, father Mark Barden was among those parents who testified about the torment he endured from Jones' followers.

Mark Barden, Father of Sandy Hook Victim: This was horror beyond anything we had — could ever imagine, trying to deal with — trying to deal with the fact that our little boy had just been shot to death in his first-grade classroom.

I had a picture of, like, one of my little days at home with Daniel. I — just for fun, we had a little bath in the kitchen sink, and I had taken a picture of it because it was adorable. And somebody came on the Web site saying that that picture was actually — excuse me, but that was a picture of Daniel after I had dismembered him and killed him myself, and that picture was me mocking everyone else with the fact that I had murdered my son and taken a picture of him in the sink.

You can't make this up. Somebody did. But this is what I was trying to — we were all trying to deal with.

Stephanie Sy:

Barden's son Daniel was among the 20 first-graders killed at Sandy Hook.

Joining us now is Elizabeth Williamson, who has been in the courtroom throughout the trial for The New York Times, joins us from inside the courthouse. She's also the author of "Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth."

Elizabeth, thank you so much for joining the "NewsHour".

Mark Barden's story is just one of many searing testimonies that came out of this trial, such raw stories of pain these families went through. What struck you the most in the last few weeks?

Elizabeth Williamson, The New York Times:

I think probably the story of Alissa and Robbie Parker, Stephanie, was the most searing and really is central to this damages case against Alex Jones.

What the Parkers went through was — it resulted from a news conference that Robbie Parker gave the night after his daughter Emilie's death at Sandy Hook. And he spoke about her, what type of sister she was to her two little sisters. He even expressed compassion for the gunman and the gunman's family.

And Jones seized on a moment, a split-second, as Robbie Parker stepped to the lectern that night. And there was a small laugh that he gave because he was shocked to see so many cameras and so many reporters in front of him, because he only expected one.

Jones for years played and replayed that split-second laugh and portrayed him as an actor. So, all of that video over all of those years made him kind of the face of the so-called Sandy Hook hoax. And he and his family came in for unbelievable numbers of threats and online abuse, to the point — and it started immediately, really within hours of that news conference.

So it disrupted their — the funeral that they planned for Emilie. They were in terror. Just before the funeral, Robbie found Alissa, Emilie's mother, hiding in a closet, saying: "I don't know if I can go through with this."

Just really horrific trauma, secondary trauma inflicted on these families by these lies that Alex Jones spread for years.

Stephanie Sy:

These families had already gone through the unspeakable, losing their young children to a gunman.

And these witnesses describe years of these types of threats way beyond harassment. Alex Jones, how much of this testimony was he forced to listen to, and what was his attitude during this trial?

Elizabeth Williamson:

Great question.

Almost none of the testimony was heard by Alex Jones. He refused to turn up in the courtroom. He was there for one part of a day. He delivered his sort of testimony in which he said he was done apologizing. The families were there. Some of them were weeping because that video that I just spoke about with Robbie Parker had just been played in the courtroom.

People were very emotional. And he was just really expressionless looking at them and saying: I'm done apologizing for this. What is this, a struggle session? Are we in China?

Just a really sort of unbelievably coarse performance. And then he never came back. However, he held forth on the courthouse steps multiple times giving these news conferences in which he was just trumpeting his own grievance and saying that he was right to question this.

So, he sort of doubled down, rather than showing any kind of contrition in this situation.

Stephanie Sy:

Elizabeth, Alex Jones is on the hook for tens of millions of dollars from just the Texas trial. And Texas does have caps on damages, but Connecticut does not.

Do these large amounts have the potential to financially ruin Alex Jones and potentially take away his ability to promulgate the next conspiracy theory on his platform?

Elizabeth Williamson:

That remains to be seen, Stephanie.

It's hard to know at this moment, because he is currently in bankruptcy proceedings. He is saying that he can't pay these judgments. The families, of course, are pursuing, and they have some suspicions about the bankruptcy filing. So — we will see.

A really big judgment would be a severe financial impact for him, for sure.

Stephanie Sy:

Elizabeth, beyond Alex Jones — and I know your book talks about this — what are the ramifications of these trial outcomes to a greater society which seems to be prone, at least in segments, to these conspiracy theories?

Elizabeth Williamson:

Yes, I mean, really what the families are doing here is standing up for truth in our public discourse, because Sandy Hook was a foundational story in how false narratives and disinformation have spread in our society.

And Alex Jones was part of this, but certainly not the entire problem. So, we have had Pizzagate and Charlottesville and coronavirus myths and then the 2020 presidential election conspiracy theories that led to the January 6 Capitol insurrection.

So they really are saying, we have a societal problem here, and they're trying to draw attention to it. Money is something that might get Alex Jones to stop doing this and stop targeting vulnerable people, or really anyone, with these false theories.

But, really, what they're standing up for here is the broader truth. And they're trying to send a signal that there is a problem in society right now, where people are choosing their own facts and their own reality and their own truth. And this is extremely dangerous, not just to vulnerable people, but to our democracy.

Stephanie Sy:

Elizabeth Williamson, thank you so much for the context. Obviously, you are in the courthouse, so we're hearing some noise.

But we appreciate you joining the "NewsHour."

Elizabeth Williamson:

It's my pleasure, Stephanie. Thank you.