{"id":1707721,"date":"2022-10-23T07:54:16","date_gmt":"2022-10-23T11:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1707721"},"modified":"2022-10-23T09:48:32","modified_gmt":"2022-10-23T13:48:32","slug":"alex-jones-seeks-new-trial-as-sandy-hook-families-seek-up-to-2-75-trillion-in-punitive-damages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/alex-jones-seeks-new-trial-as-sandy-hook-families-seek-up-to-2-75-trillion-in-punitive-damages\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Jones Seeks New Trial as Sandy Hook Families Seek up to $2.75 Trillion in Punitive Damages"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Falex-jones-seeks-new-trial-as-sandy-hook-families-seek-up-to-2-75-trillion-in-punitive-damages%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1707721&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-alex-jones\">Alex Jones<\/a> has asked a Connecticut judge to throw out a nearly $1 billion verdict against him and order a new trial in a lawsuit by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-sandy-hook\">Sandy Hook<\/a> victims\u2019 relatives over public claims he made about the mass shooting, while the families have asked the judge to impose the harshest possible punitive damages against the InfoWars host.<\/p>\n<p>Jones filed the requests on Oct. 21, arguing that Judge Barbara Bellis\u2019 pretrial rulings resulted in an unfair trial.<\/p>\n<p>Jurors in his trial ordered Jones to pay nearly $1 billion to families of the Sandy Hook school massacre for defamation, slander, and emotional damages.<\/p>\n<p>Jones for years claimed that family members of the Sandy Hook victims were actors who faked the tragedy and described the shooting as a staged hoax as part of a government plot to take away Americans\u2019 guns.<\/p>\n<p>Calling the Oct. 12 ruling against Jones a \u201csubstantial miscarriage of justice,\u201d Jones\u2019s legal team wrote in Friday\u2019s motion that\u00a0\u201cthe amount of the compensatory damages award exceeds any rational relationship to the evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the 15 plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Jones, declined to comment on the filing Saturday when asked by The Associated Press. Mattei did say, however, that he and other attorneys for the Sandy Hook families plan to file a brief opposing Jones\u2019s request for a new trial.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty first-grade schoolchildren and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School died in the Dec. 14, 2012 attack. Authorities said the gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, first shot his mother at their home before going to the school, where he opened fire and later turned the gun on himself.<\/p>\n<h2>Harshest Possible Punitive Damages<\/h2>\n<p>The judge in Jones\u2019s case ordered him to pay\u00a0$965 million in compensatory damages to the plaintiffs and said punitive damages should be awarded. Hearings have been scheduled for early November to determine the amount of the punitive damages.<\/p>\n<p>Families of the victims on Friday asked the judge to order Jones to pay the harshest possible penalty, with one calculation <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-10-21\/sandy-hook-families-seek-2-75-trillion-from-alex-jones\">cited by Bloomberg<\/a> suggesting the figure could be as high as $2.75 trillion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only appropriate punitive damages award in this case is the largest award within the court\u2019s power,\u201d the families\u2019 lawyers said in the filing, per Bloomberg. \u201cThe defendants have acted willfully, maliciously, and evilly, in full knowledge of the harm they are causing people who had no means to fight back, except to bring this case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During Jones\u2019s trial, relatives of the victims said that they were threatened and harassed for years by people who believed his false claims about the massacre.<\/p>\n<p>Jones has vowed not to pay the full amount.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI got a couple of houses, a couple million bucks in the bank,\u201d Jones <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/alex-jones-says-he-wont-pay-965-million-verdict-theyre-gravely-mistaken_4796883.html\">told Newsmax<\/a> on Oct. 14. \u201cIt\u2019s a total joke. And so if they think they\u2019re gonna get 900-plus million dollars, they\u2019re gravely mistaken.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Norm Pattis, Jones\u2019s lawyer, wrote in the motions filed Friday that there was a lack of evidence directly tying Jones with the people who harassed and threatened the Sandy Hook families.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, the families in this case suffered horribly as a result of the murder of their children,\u201d Pattis wrote, adding that Jones did not send people to harass and threaten the families.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was no competent evidence offered at this trial that he ever did,\u201d he wrote. \u201cInstead, there was a shocking abuse of a disciplinary default and its transformation into a series of half-truths that misled a jury and resulted in substantial injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Political commentator Michael Tracey reacted to news that Sandy Hook victims\u2019 families were seeking the steepest possible punitive damages, saying in a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mtracey\/status\/1583636936925007872\">post on Twitter<\/a> that Jones was wrong but that the potential $2.75 trillion that has been cited in media reports as a possible punishment \u201cseems crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI actually covered the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012 and saw, in person, the body of a dead first grader,\u201d Tracey said. \u201cSo yeah, Alex Jones was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut this new idea that spreading crazy theories about news events somehow warrants ruinous *multi-trillion* dollar penalties\u2026 also seems crazy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-tom-ozimek\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/WEB_TomOzimek-_1.jpg\" alt=\"Tom Ozimek\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Tom Ozimek has a broad background in journalism, deposit insurance, marketing and communications, and adult education. The best writing advice he&#8217;s ever heard is from Roy Peter Clark: &#8216;Hit your target&#8217; and &#8216;leave the best for last.&#8217;\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alex Jones has asked a Connecticut judge to throw out a nearly $1 billion verdict against him and order a new trial in a lawsuit by Sandy Hook victims\u2019 relatives<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1696806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1707721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1707721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1696806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1707721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1707721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1707721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}