Joseph Ax

(Reuters) – Alex Jones is a conspiracy theorist who founded the right-wing website Infowars. He falsely claimed the Sandy Hook massacre of 2012 was a hoax and that he had caused it.

In Austin’s state court, Judge Maya Guerra Gamble ruled Jones had repeatedly ignored court orders to turn over documents to parents of the children who were killed during the attack.

Jones said that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown in Connecticut in which twenty children were killed and six teachers were injured was faked by mainstream media and gun control advocates.

Jones and Infowars were sued by several parents for defamation. Infowars has its headquarters in Texas.

Jones finally admitted that the massacre took place in a deposition relating to one of his suits. However, he still denied the wrongdoing of the parents.

Jones and Infowars were ordered last year by another Texas judge to pay $100,000 in legal costs in one case.

Gamble wrote in this week’s ruling that Jones was guilty of a “consistently pattern of discovery abuse” in multiple cases arising from the shooting.

Gamble’s decision will mean that the defendants must pay an undetermined amount to the parents of the two 6-year-old boy victims of the shooting. Leonard Pozner, Veronique Del Rosa and Neil Heslin filed one lawsuit. Veronique’s son Noah, who died in the shooting, had also filed one.

Jones, Norm Pattis (an attorney for Infowars), and Jones made a joint statement calling the decision “stunning.”

The statement stated that “we are disturbed by what we consider a blatant misuse of discretion by trial court.”

Jones has been banned by social media sites Facebook (NASDAQ;), Twitter (NYSE (:) and YouTube, in accordance with their policies against hate speech or abusive behavior.