(MENAFN- Live Mint) The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' appeal, leaving intact the $1.4 billion judgment against him for falsely claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax staged by“crisis actors”.

Jones filed for bankruptcy in late 2022 , and his lawyers told the justices that the“plaintiffs have no possible hope of collecting” the entire judgment.

By rejecting his challenge to the Connecticut Appellate Court's ruling, the Supreme Court upheld most of the 2022 defamation judgment granted to 14 family members of the children and school staff killed, as well as an FBI agent who responded to the shooting.

As many as 26 persons, including 20 first graders, were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, after a 20-year-old former student opened fire indiscriminately before fatally shooting himself.

Jones argued that the Connecticut lawsuit's judgment violated his constitutional rights to due process and free speech. According to his Supreme Court filing, the $1.4 billion award is believed to be the largest in US history for a libel case.

He also lost a similar lawsuit in Texas, though the roughly $50 million judgment in that case was far lower. Jones is separately appealing that judgment. He declared bankruptcy after losing the lawsuits.

He was sued after he called the shooting a“false flag,” arguing they were meant to trigger anti-gun sentiments. He had also claimed that the parents of the kids who died were“crisis actors,” faking their grief.

Jones refused to participate in the legal proceedings, disputing Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis' ruling that he was liable for defaming the parents of the Sandy Hook victims. In the trial in Waterbury, the six-member jury was tasked only with determining the damages he should pay, ultimately awarding $965 million in compensatory damages.

Also Read | Alex Jones Estate to Be Liquidated to Pay Sandy Hook Debt

Judge Bellis then added $473 million in punitive damages, which was later reduced to $323 million by an appeals court. In his Supreme Court appeal, Jones challenged the total $1.4 billion award.

The verdict is so large that it“can never be paid,” according to the filing, and a bankruptcy court has ruled that Jones cannot use his personal bankruptcy to avoid paying the debt.

In his filing to the Supreme Court, Jones said that the judge's default judgment was based on "small discovery errors" and "trivial" missteps by his lawyers, and led to an unfair trial.

(With Reuters inputs)

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