{"id":415469,"date":"2026-08-24T17:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T17:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/415469\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T17:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T17:20:13","slug":"appeals-court-reduces-50m-judgment-against-former-infowars-host-alex-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/415469\/","title":{"rendered":"Appeals court reduces $50M judgment against former Infowars host Alex Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\tHome<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\tDaily News<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\tAppeals court reduces $50M judgment against\u2026<\/p>\n

Trials & Litigation<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tAppeals court reduces $50M judgment against former Infowars host Alex Jones<\/p>\n

By Shirley Henderson<\/a><\/p>\n

August 24, 2026, 11:08 am CDT<\/p>\n

\"AP<\/p>\n

Lawyer Mark Bankston asks then-Infowars host Alex Jones questions about text messages during trial at the Travis County Courthouse in Austin, Texas, in August 2022. (Photo by Briana Sanchez\/The Austin American-Statesman via the Associated Press)<\/p>\n

A Texas appeals court on Friday reduced a $50 million judgment that former Infowars host Alex Jones was ordered to pay the families of victims who died in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting massacre in Connecticut for spreading fake claims that the deadly shooting was a hoax.<\/p>\n

The Texas Third Court of Appeals, citing state laws limiting lawsuit damages, ruled that the Infowars founder will have to pay only about $6 million. Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, were forced him into bankruptcy, resulting in his assets being liquidated, according to coverage by the Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The appeals court ruled that he would have to pay more than $4.1 million in compensatory damages awarded to Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, Sandy Hook parents of a 6-year-old son, for defamation and emotional distress, but it slashed more than $45 million in punitive damages to $1.5 million to comply with the state\u2019s $750,000 cap per plaintiff. The Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy happened Dec. 14, 2012, and is one of the deadliest U.S. shootings, killing 20 first-graders and six educators.<\/p>\n

The Sandy Hook victims\u2019 families have not collected money from Jones, who has been appealing the court\u2019s decision. Although Jones called the Friday ruling \u201ca gigantic victory for the First Amendment,\u201d the appeals court held the defamation finding against him. Jones also faces a $1.25 billion financial judgment in Connecticut.<\/p>\n

See also:<\/p>\n

Supreme Court rejects Alex Jones\u2019s bid to set aside $1.4 billion verdict<\/a><\/p>\n

Can Infowars host Alex Jones pay nearly $965M verdict for Sandy Hook lies? He spent $80K to get to trial, bankruptcy filings show<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n Write a letter to the editor, share a story tip or update, or report an error.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Home Daily News Appeals court reduces $50M judgment against\u2026 Trials & Litigation Appeals court reduces $50M judgment against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[52856,132,134,133,144743,59645,21893,52859,48,52857,144746,52864,30805,27,144744,52858,144745],"class_list":["post-415469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-aba-journal","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-banking-law","tag-bankruptcy-law","tag-connecticut","tag-corporate-law","tag-law","tag-legal-news","tag-libel","tag-litigation-management","tag-states","tag-texas","tag-tort-law","tag-trials-litigation","tag-verdicts-settlements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}