Mother of Sandy Hook shooting victim on Alex Jones defamation case
Scarlett Lewis, the mother of a Sandy Hook shooting victim joins "CBS Mornings."
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Scarlett Lewis, the mother of a Sandy Hook shooting victim joins "CBS Mornings."
The far-right broadcaster and conspiracy theorist had called the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting "a hoax."
The conspiracy theorist will face multiple trials this year to decide what he owes in damages to families who sued him for defamation and won.
A Texas jury Thursday awarded the parents of one of the victims of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School over $4 million in the damages trial of Alex Jones. Roy Gutterman, director of the Tully Center for Free Speech at Syracuse University, joined CBS News to discuss the verdict.
A jury in Texas has ordered the right-wing conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones to pay over $4 million in compensatory damages to the family of a 6-year-old boy killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting. They sued him for defamation and testified that his false claims that the shooting was a hoax made their lives "a living hell." CBS News legal contributor Jessica Levinson joins Robert Costa with more on the breaking news.
The conspiracy theorist and far-right broadcaster had earlier been found liable for defamation in a rare default judgment.
In a stunning reversal, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones admits he now believes the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary did happen -- a turnaround from years of denying the tragedy. CBS News' Nancy Chen reports and Jesse Weber, attorney and host on the Law and Crime Network, joins "CBS News Mornings" with more analysis on the case.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones testified Wednesday in his defamation trial that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was not a hoax. Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky, the Raymond and Miriam Ehrlich Chair in U.S. Constitutional Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, joined CBS News to discuss what his testimony means.
The conspiracy theorist said that he now understands it was irresponsible of him to declare the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting a hoax.
"I wanted to tell you to your face. ... Jesse was real. I am a real mom," Scarlett Lewis told Alex Jones. "...I know you know that, and that's the problem."
Courts in Connecticut and Texas are holding trials to determine how much radio host Alex Jones owes the families people who were killed in the Sandy Hook shooting, who won defamation cases against him. His company filed for bankruptcy Friday. Vinoo Varghese, a Wall Street criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor who is on the teaching faculty at Harvard Law, joins "CBS News Mornings" to explain how both sides are approaching the cases.
The trial seeks to force Jones to pay $150 million or more to the family of one of the children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School attack.
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Nelba Marquez-Greene said she re-lived the tragic day she lost a child in the Sandy Hook shooting when she learned of Tuesday's shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
Murphy, who represented the families of Sandy Hook Elementary School, urged colleagues to take legislative action.
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Jones was found liable in at least two defamation suits over his assertions that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
Fines were mounting for his failing to appear. Damages are being determined after a judge ruled he defamed families for claiming the massacre never happened.
They sued him for claiming the shooting never happened. He offered to pay $120,000 per plaintiff. A judge found him liable for damages in November.
Nicole Hockley's son was one of 20 first-graders and six educators murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.
The families of nine victims have agreed to a $73 million settlement of a lawsuit against the maker of the rifle used to kill 20 first graders and six educators in 2012.
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"What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I've seen in my time in public service," Democratic Rep. Jim Himes said.
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