Scarlett Lewis, whose 6-year-old son Jesse was among those killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, says she has forgiven online conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for his repeated claims that the fatal mass shooting was "staged" — but still wanted to hold him accountable.
"I could only feel compassion for him," Lewis said of her first time addressing Jones in-person at a court hearing last week. "What I saw was just a man, a human being in pain, lonely with no one there to testify for him. He had not a person there."
For years, Jones claimed the shooting, which remains one of the deadliest in U.S. history, as a "false flag" created with the intent of increasing gun control in the country. On public platforms, Jones accused family members of the massacre's shooting victims, like Lewis, of being "crisis actors."
But in testimony earlier this month, Jones admitted that it was irresponsible of him to declare the massacre a hoax and said he now thinks it was "100% real."
Lewis said she believes Jones feels remorse for repeatedly spreading the false claims.
"I believe that he knows that Sandy Hook happened and that he's made bad choices and I believe that he could make different choices going forward," she told "CBS Mornings" on Tuesday. "I think that he wants to. I think sometimes greed gets in the way."
In 2018, Lewis and Jesse's father, Neil Heslin, sued Jones and his media company Free Speech Systems, seeking at least $150 million in compensatory damages for...
Athena Construction Group Inc. must pay about $1 million for violating the False Claims Act by making misrepresentations about its eligibility to receive contracts set aside for HUBZone companies,...