TEXAS COURT REDUCES $50M ALEX JONES SANDY HOOK JUDGMENT TO $1.5M

A Texas appeals court has reduced a $50m judgment against Alex Jones to $1.5m 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 on Friday, finding that parents Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis did not provide sufficient evidence of harassment to exceed the state's $750,000 cap on damages. The court's decision applies only to the two parents' case, which represents two of 19 combined claims brought by Sandy Hook families. Mark Bankston, the parents' attorney, stated that Jones still faces over a billion dollars of liability, meaning the ruling "changes absolutely nothing".

The reduction concerns a Texas judgment only and does not affect a separate $1.25bn ruling against Jones issued in Connecticut, which ordered him to pay for spreading hoax claims about the shooting that killed 20 children and six staff members. Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, have been found liable for damages after promoting false narratives that victims' children were actors and that the shooting was orchestrated by the government to justify gun regulations. These claims led to abuse, death threats and relocation for families of victims. The US Supreme Court declined to hear Jones's appeal of the larger Connecticut award last year without providing reasons for its decision.

Jones filed for bankruptcy in 2024 and surrendered the Infowars brand in April 2026, though he continues to broadcast online and share content on social media platform X. Legal proceedings regarding bankruptcy and payment of the judgments remain ongoing. Earlier in 2026, the satirical website the Onion announced provisional approval from a Texas court to lease Infowars and convert it into a parody version of itself.