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Overview
The 2022 Alex Jones Defamation Trial is the courtroom trial of conspiracy theorist and internet personality Alex Jones vs. the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims. After being delayed from April to July 2022, the trial was set to take place in Austin, Texas, to determine how much money Jones should give the families of Sandy Hook victims as repayment for his insistence that the event was a false flag hoax.
The Texas jury ultimately awarded millions in damages to plaintiffs Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, while a Connecticut case resulted in a much larger verdict exceeding $1 billion. Courts found Jones liable in part due to failure to comply with legal procedures, and testimony revealed both acknowledgment of the shooting's reality and continued inflammatory statements. Courts later imposed additional fines, rejected appeals and scrutinized attempts to conceal or shield assets. Jones and his companies filed for bankruptcy multiple times, but rulings limited his ability to avoid paying damages, ultimately leading to orders to liquidate assets, including his media business.
In June 2024, a bankruptcy trustee notably sought to shut down Infowars and liquidate its assets, with a proposed sale involving The Onion's parent company later blocked after legal challenges. In 2025, a Texas judge ordered the company’s assets transferred to a receiver for sale to compensate victims' families, while disputes over ownership persisted. In October 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Jones's appeal, leaving the roughly $1.4 billion judgment in place alongside ongoing related appeals. In late April 2025, The Onion then successfully landed the deal to take over Infowars, revealing a new rainbow-branded logo.
Background
After the conclusion of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in late 2012, Infowars podcast host Alex Jones claimed the event was a hoax, with varying degrees of conspiracy added to his reasoning. This resulted in two families suing him for damages, claiming that fans of the host voraciously attacked the families who were believed to be in on the alleged false flag conspiracy.
As reported by Today on October 2nd, 2021, Jones lost the initial lawsuit, with the court finding that he failed to provide adequate evidence that Sandy Hook was staged (shown below).
The result of the trial showing that Jones is liable for the damage caused to the two families of Sandy Hook victims meant that a later trial, with a jury, would be required to ascertain how much monetary damages should be paid out to the families.
The impact of the trial is potentially bigger than just itself, as Jones is still awaiting the payout amounts in two other defamation trials that were concluded in other states, as noted by the local news YouTube channel WFAA on July 25th, 2022 (shown below).
Developments
The trial began in Texas on July 25th, 2022, with several reported issues for Jones and his defense team. For example, Free Speech LLC, the parent company for Infowars, declared bankruptcy on July 29th, before Jones appeared, reportedly as a way to mitigate the damages Jones will be forced to pay as a result of the trial, according to Reuters.
On August 2nd, Jones then testified that he had complied with court orders in defamation suits and was bankrupt. The following day, Judge Maya Guerra Gamble admonished him for lying under oath with regard to this claim, as he had failed to comply with court orders, and he was not technically bankrupt.
In court on August 3rd, 2022, Jones then admitted that the Sandy Hook shooting was "100 percent real" and agreed with his own attorney that it was "irresponsible" to broadcast to his audience that the shooting never happened.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones admitted that the Sandy Hook shooting was '100% real' -- and then appeared to play the victim because of the media's coverage of his defamation trial pic.twitter.com/p9YMHcGq0Z
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) August 3, 2022
Alex Jones's Lawyer Text Message Gaffe
On August 3rd, 2022, the lawyer for the Sandy Hook parents, Mark Bankston, alleged that Jones's legal team had accidentally sent them the contents of Jones's phone records.
Bankston said this information proved to him that Jones had lied when he stated he didn't have text messages about Sandy Hook. In a viral moment widely shared and discussed online, Bankston asked Jones, "Do you know what perjury is?"
“Do you know what perjury is?” pic.twitter.com/awbBpVf4Tl
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 3, 2022
Jones's lawyers then moved for a mistrial after it was revealed that Bankston had received the contents of Jones's phone, which the judge denied, purportedly saying Jones had asked for a mistrial "like 17 times already" (shown below).
The gaffe led to much mockery and jokes on social media. For example, on August 3rd, Twitter user @johnvvariety joked about a moment from the clip in which the cameras focused on Jones's lawyer looking pensive as Bankston revealed the alleged mistake, gaining over 2,300 retweets and 45,000 likes in one day (shown below, left).
That same day, Twitter user @Travon compared Jones's lawyers to Barry Zuckerkorn, the comically inept lawyer played by Henry Winkler in Arrested Development, gaining 45 retweets and 580 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).
Connecticut Trial Verdict
On October 12th, 2022, Jones was ordered to pay each of the fifteen plaintiffs in the Connecticut portion of his defamation trial sums between $28.8 million and $120 million, with the total sum reaching $965 million.
Added to the $45.2 million he was ordered to pay in an earlier Austin trial, Jones now owes over $1 billion in damages. A third trial in Austin is scheduled for later in 2022.
Sale of Infowars To The Onion
On November 14th, 2024, satire website The Onion announced it had purchased Infowars at auction after Alex Jones declared bankruptcy as a result of the settlement. The Onion plans to reimagine Infowars as a site parodying conspiracy theorists and grifters.
The sale was halted for review after Jones's attorneys sued in the U.S Bankruptcy Court in Houston, claiming the bid was unlawful. The sale was then rejected after a hearing in December 2024.
In August 2025, a Texas Judge ordered Infowars assets to be turned over to the state to be sold to pay the families in the lawsuit, with The Onion renewing its efforts to acquire the site. After Jones asked the court to halt proceedings, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal in mid-October, leaving the $1.4 billion judgment in place.
On April 20th, 2026, reports emerged that The Onion had agreed to a new deal to take over Infowars, pending approval by a Texas judge. The deal would ultimately allow The Onion to resume plans to turn the site into a parody, with the company saying it could announce its new revamp of the site in weeks, pending approval from the judge.
That same day, the Twitter account @DiscussingFilm tweeted about the news, including an image of The Onion's new logo for Infowars, garnering over 2.5 million views, 87,000 likes, 7,100 retweets and 840 replies in roughly a day.
Alex Jones Turning Around In Court
Alex Jones Turning Around In Court refers to an image macro and screencap of Jones turning around to look at the doors in the courtroom. After being posted on Twitter, meme creators imagined who Jones was looking at in the doorway or used him as a reaction image with an accompanying caption.
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