WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected conservative conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' last-ditch attempt to block an almost $1.5 billion defamation judgment he faces over false claims that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax.
The court without comment turned away Jones' appeal of a state court ruling.
Last week he urged the court to urgently intervene, saying that if the court did not take action, his website, Infowars, was at risk of being turned over to the satirical news site The Onion.
The proposed acquisition would be used to help fund payments to family members of the Sandy Hook victims.
Jones’ lawyer, Ben Broocks, had warned in the filing last week that if the case was not put on hold, “InfoWars will have been acquired by its ideological nemesis and destroyed.” Broocks did not respond to a request for comment.
Chris Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, said in a statement: “The Supreme Court properly rejected Jones’s latest desperate attempt to avoid accountability for the harm he has caused. We look forward to enforcing the jury’s historic verdict and making Jones and Infowars pay for what they have done.”
Ben Collins, a former NBC News reporter who is The Onion's CEO, declined to comment.
In December 2012, a gunman killed 20 first-grade children and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
After the shooting, Jones on more than one occasion suggested during his online shows that it was a "staged event," according to court papers.
Families of the victims then sued in Connecticut state court, claiming defamation as well as other state law violations.
Jones, who owns InfoWars through his company Free Speech Systems, subsequently lost attempts in state court to appeal the judgment. He is also seeking bankruptcy protections.
The Onion failed in an earlier attempt to acquire InfoWars through a bankruptcy auction, but Jones’ lawyer said a new attempt is underway in Texas state court.
