The parent company of far-right website Infowars agreed yesterday to face a second U.S. defamation trial stemming from the company's false claims the deadly 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting was a hoax, Reuters reported. Free Speech Systems' attorneys told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston the company would no longer oppose a trial in Connecticut next month, even though the company's bankruptcy would normally shield it from lawsuits. The Connecticut trial will determine how much FSS and its founder, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, should pay in a defamation case brought by family members of children slain in the shooting. Families of children killed in the 2012 shooting have won judgments finding Jones and his companies liable for defamation in Texas and Connecticut. On Aug. 5 a Texas jury decided Jones must pay the parents of a 6-year-old boy killed in the massacre $45.2 million in punitive damages — on top of $4.1 million in compensatory damages — for falsely claiming the shooting was a hoax. Free Speech Systems filed for chapter 11 on July 29, when the Texas defamation trial was already under way. The company initially argued that going to trial in Connecticut would jeopardize its ability to reorganize, but it agreed to participate after a Connecticut judge ruled that the trial could go forward against Jones, who is not bankrupt.
