Texas court slashes $50M judgment against Alex Jones to $1.5M

A Texas appeals court on Friday slashed a $50 million judgment to $1.5 million against Infowars founder Alex Jones over his false claims that the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting was a hoax.

The Texas Third Court of Appeals issued a unanimous opinion reducing the damages award against Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems. The ruling does not affect a $1.4 billion judgment against Jones in Connecticut stemming from separate litigation over the same false claims.

The court found that Sandy Hook parents Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis did not present sufficient evidence that harassment inflamed by Jones's hoax claims rose to a level that would allow them to exceed Texas's $750,000 cap on damages for each plaintiff. Heslin and Lewis's 6-year-old son Jesse Lewis was among 20 children and six educators killed in the December 2012 attack in Newtown, Connecticut.

The Texas case marked the first time Jones was held financially liable for spreading false claims about the Sandy Hook massacre. Jones had repeatedly claimed on his platform that the shooting did not occur and that the parents were actors involved in a conspiracy.

The reduction represents a significant legal victory for Jones following years of litigation over his statements about the shooting. However, the Connecticut judgment of $1.4 billion, issued in separate proceedings, remains in effect and substantially exceeds the Texas award.

Jones and Free Speech Systems were found liable for damages in both cases after being determined to have made false statements about the shooting. The Texas ruling addressed the specific question of whether the evidence supported damages exceeding the state's statutory cap for individual plaintiffs.