The families of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting have rejected Alex Jones' offer to settle with each of them for $120,000, describing it as "transparent and desperate" attempt by the conspiracy theorist to avoid public scrutiny for falsely claiming the massacre was a hoax.
According to court filings, the InfoWars host offered each of the 13 plaintiffs the six-figure settlement on Tuesday after a judge ruled in November that he must pay damages to the families of the murdered children for repeatedly spreading false claims about the 2012 mass shooting which left 26 people, including 20 children, dead.
"Mr. Jones extends his heartfelt apology for any distress his remarks caused," the filings submitted in a Connecticut court state.
In separate filings, each of the families rejected Jones' offer while providing the same response.
"The so-called offer is a transparent and desperate attempt by Alex Jones to escape a public reckoning under oath with his deceitful, profit-driven campaign against the plaintiffs and the memory of their loved ones lost at Sandy Hook," the families said.
In the wake of the Sandy Hook attack, Jones infamously claimed that the shooting was a hoax, no children died at the school, and the parents were "crisis actors."
Jones later admitted that a shooting did occur, but said the lawsuits against him should be dismissed for violating his freedom of speech. Jones also claims that there is not enough evidence to prove defamation or intentional infliction of emotional distress.
On March 24, Jones failed to appear for a deposition hearing while claiming he was too unwell to attend. However, Jones still appeared on his InfoWars show in the days before and after the court-ordered hearing.
In response, plaintiffs Erica Lafferty and William Sherlach submitted a court request for Jones to be held in contempt for failing to appear at his deposition on March 25.
"It is absolutely no surprise that today—the day after he skipped his deposition—Mr. Jones was back on the air from his studio, explaining to his audience that the emergent medical condition that supposedly manifested just days before his deposition turned out to be 'a blockage in his sinus,'" the filings state.
"It is no coincidence that Mr. Jones's sinus cleared as soon as plaintiffs' counsel cleared Texas airspace."
In a statement to Newsweek, after the family rejected the offer, Jones' lawyer, Norm Pattis, said: "Our desire to settle is genuine and longstanding, and the lawyers involved know it.
"Mr. Jones has already sat for three depositions in these cases; he's provided responses to written requests under oath; he has provided tens of thousands of documents. In response, the plaintiffs have claimed he has not done enough, and have obtained defaults; they now seek his arrest.
"The Sandy Hook shootings are almost a decade behind us. It's time to put this case behind us, too. Our offer to settle these cases remains open, as it has been for the past year."
A trial is scheduled to take place to determine how much Jones should pay the families for spreading his falsehoods about the Sandy Hook shooting. Attorneys for both Jones and the families are expected to appear at a hearing before a judge on Wednesday.
UPDATE 03/30/22, 10:15 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Alex Jones lawyer.
