Days after being found guilty in the Sandy Hook defamation cases, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is begging his supporters to send him money to keep his right-wing website Infowars running.
“It’s going to take a lot of money to fight this and a lot of money for the appeals,” Jones said. “I can’t spend the money we have paying our crew and running our independent media outlet that reaches millions of people without your support.”
For years, Jones spread bogus theories, claiming the shooting was a “false flag” operation engineered by the government to bring about stricter gun control laws, and falsely accused the families of being “crisis actors” who faked being the victims of the shooting.
The families of Sandy Hook victims were subjected to years of in-person and online harassment over Jones’ claims. They successfully argued that Jones made money from spreading the bogus conspiracy theories through his Infowars channel.
Claiming that Infowars was “doing its most important work ever”, Jones begged “wealthy people” to send him money.
“Make a $10 donation, a $1,000 donation,” he said. “Wealthy people out there – your free speech is being destroyed! InfoWars is just the first domino to fall and if wealthy folks don’t start spending their money promoting liberty, promoting freedom, we’re going to lose this country!”
He concluded by saying that he had never issued an “alert this serious” but he needed help right now.
In a major legal blow, Jones has been found guilty in all four defamation cases brought by the families of eight victims of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Twenty-six people, including 20 school children, died in the shooting.
Juries will now decide how much Jones has to pay the families in damages and court costs.
While Jones keeps his financial circumstances largely hidden, he is thought to be worth around $5m, largely gained through the sale of supplements on his Infowars network.
