Alex Jones and InfoWars must pay $100,000 in legal fees stemming from a defamation suit filed by the family of a Sandy Hook school shooting victim, a Texas judge ruled earlier this month.
On Dec. 20, Judge Scott Jenkins ordered Jones — who spread conspiracy theories that the Sandy Hook shooting was a “giant hoax” — pay $65,825 for ignoring a court order to produce witnesses and documents to Neil Heslin, the father of a 6-year-old student who died in the Dec. 2012 shooting.. That same day, Jenkins also ordered Jones to cover $34,323 in attorney fees for Heslin.
Combined with an earlier order in October, Jones and InfoWars have been ordered to pay $126,023.80 for this suit before it has even reached the trial stage, according to the Daily Beast, which first reported the ruling.
But this is just one of several defamation suits filed against Jones, who had repeatedly called the Sandy Hook shooting a “giant hoax” led by “crisis actors.” Since then, Jones has acknowledged the shooting was indeed real and blamed his comments on a “form of psychosis,” according to a deposition he gave for a different defamation suit.
“I basically thought everything was staged, even though I’m now learning a lot of times things aren’t staged,” he said.
A representative for InfoWars did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.