Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Tuesday failed in his bid to slash a nearly $50 million defamation verdict against him over his false claims that the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting was a hoax, Reuters reported.
Judge Maya Guerra Gamble rejected arguments by a lawyer for Jones and the parent company of his Infowars website that a Texas state law capping certain types of damages meant that the August verdict in favor of two parents of a child slain at Sandy Hook should be cut by more than $40 million.
Jones claimed that the 2012 killing of 20 students and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, was staged with actors as part of a government plot to seize Americans’ guns. He has since acknowledged the shooting occurred.
Jones’ attorney, Andino Reynal, said the ruling contradicts "decades of precedent" and that he will appeal.
In October, a Connecticut jury in a separate case brought by relatives of more than a dozen Sandy Hook victims ordered Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems LLC, to pay nearly $1 billion in damages.
Earlier this month, the judge in that case tacked on an additional $473 million in punitive damages.
Another defamation lawsuit against Jones brought by Sandy Hook parents is set to go to trial in Austin, Texas, in March.