Apologies, I'm gay and retarded, and I've basically ignored this case until now. It's a defamation case and the Sandy Hook parents are saying there's over a hundred million dollars in damages? And "sorry your honor I'm dumb as fuck" isn't a legal defense against defamation? I mean if they could prove he was lying about it and caused them a bunch of grief in order to make money or promote his show, that would be one thing, but I would imagine you'd need solid proof. Then again, if his lawyer just gave up a trove of phone records...
I guess I would just expect this to require very rock-solid proof that he knew it was false and insisted on it anyway.
...although that would probably explain it. If he was specifically claiming they committed crimes, and there's proof he made it up for ratings/advertisement/etc., and he didn't hedge his phrasing at all, I could see how he gets stuck for this.