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NEWSMAX<\/p>\n
A Texas judge ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay $100,000 in another court setback over the Infowars host using his show to promote falsehoods that the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax.<\/p>\n
Jones is being sued for defamation in Austin, Texas, by the parents of a 6-year-old who was among the 26 people killed in the Newtown, Connecticut, attack.<\/p>\n
State District Judge Scott Jenkins ruled on Dec. 20 that Jones and his defense team \u201cintentionally disregarded\u201d an earlier order to provide witnesses to attorneys representing a Sandy Hook father who brought the lawsuit, Neil Heslin. Jenkins also denied Jones’ request to dismiss the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
An attorney for Jones did not immediately comment Tuesday. Jenkins’ orders were first reported by The Daily Beast.<\/p>\n
Jones operates Infowars in Texas. He is fighting similar lawsuits in Connecticut brought by other families of Sandy Hook victims for promoting a theory that the shooting was a hoax. A 20-year-old gunman killed 20 first-graders, six educators and himself at the school, after having killed his mother at their Newtown home.<\/p>\n
The families said they have been subjected to harassment and death threats from Jones\u2019 followers because of the hoax conspiracy.<\/p>\n
Jones has since acknowledged that the Sandy Hook killings occurred. His attorneys have defended his speech in court as “rhetorical hyperbole” and deny it was defamation.<\/p>\n
In June, the father of 6-year-old Noah Pozner, one of the Sandy Hook victims, won a defamation lawsuit against the authors of a book that claimed the shooting never happened.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n