- Alex Jones declared "victory" after being ordered to pay $4.1 million in damages to Sandy Hook parents.
- Jones claimed his testimony — damages notwithstanding — "woke the jury up."
- Jones also appealed to his supporters to buy T-shirts and books to keep Infowars going.
On Thursday evening, Alex Jones bizarrely declared "victory" after being ordered to pay $4.1 million to the parents of a victim of the Sandy Hook massacre.
Jones is currently moving through the first phase of his defamation damages trial. This trial will decide how much he has to pay the parents of victims of the Sandy Hook massacre, who allege they have experienced torment over Jones' repeated, baseless claims that the 2012 mass shooting was a "giant hoax" staged by "crisis actors."
Jones was ordered on Thursday to pay $4.1 million to Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of Jesse Lewis, 6, who was killed during the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. This was far less than the $150 million requested by the parents. Jones' attorney, however, asked that the jury make his client pay no more than $8.
"I admitted I was wrong. I made a mistake," Jones said in a video shared on Infowars on Thursday. "But not on purpose. I apologized to the families. And the jury understood that what I did to those families was wrong, but I didn't do it on purpose."
"I trusted God. I trust the truth coming out. At the end of the day, I don't have all these millions of dollars they claim I have," Jones continued. "But this is still a major victory for truth."
Jones also said he thought his testimony woke the jury up to new facts, which is why the damages awarded were far lower than the parents' request.
Jones went on to say he was "going to work on trying to make restitution" and appealed to his supporters to buy products from the Infowars store to help him out.
"We are so broke," Jones said, adding at multiple points in the video that the show was "close to being shut down."
"So get a T-shirt, get a book," he said.
In July, Free Speech Systems, the parent company of Jones' Infowars, filed for bankruptcy. In April, three companies owned by Jones — Infowars, Prison Planet TV, and IW Health — filed for bankruptcy, with filings indicating that each entity owes up to $10 million in estimated liabilities. That same month, Jones hawked Infowars merchandise to his supporters as part of an "Emergency Blowout Sale," calling it "do or die time."
However, legal experts told Insider this week that Jones may be using claims of bankruptcy to avoid paying the Sandy Hook parents. Judge Maya Guerra Gamble cut Jones off while he tried to insist a $2 million penalty would sink his Infowars show.
The verdict wraps up a rollercoaster ride of a trial phase, during which Jones learned that his attorney "messed up" and sent the opposing counsel years of his phone records.
During the trial, the Infowars host was also berated by the judge on more than one occasion, while his attorney engaged in a courtroom spat and flipped the plaintiffs' lawyer off.
A lawyer for Jones did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.