Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones agreed Thursday to liquidate his personal assets to pay off some of the $1.5 billion in damages he owes to families of Sandy Hook victims for lies he told about the 2012 school massacre, NBC News reported.
In light of the move, Jones will no longer own Infowars, a powerful conspiracy-spewing empire he founded in the 1990s. Jones had used his media company to spread vile conspiracy theories, about everything from 9/11 to school shootings, that made him a very rich man. He had earlier declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
“Converting the case to Chapter 7 will hasten the end of these bankruptcies and facilitate the liquidation of Jones’s assets, which is the same reason we have moved to convert his company’s case to Chapter 7,” Chris Mattei, anattorney representing Sandy Hook families, told CNN.
Unlike Chapter 11 bankruptcy, under Chapter 7 “the bankruptcy trustee gathers and sells the debtor’s nonexempt assets and uses the proceeds of such assets to pay holders of claims,” according to an explainer from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
Usually bankruptcy can be used to excuse debts and legal judgments. However, the judge overseeing Jones’ case ruled in October that defamation verdicts cannot legally be dispensed since they were the result of Jones’ “willful and malicious injury.”
For years Jones had claimed that the Sandy Hook killings were staged by government actors in a ploy to confiscate Americans’ guns. He has since admitted that the shooting had occurred while nonetheless claiming he is a victim. On Tuesday, Jones complained that the Sandy Hook families were attempting to shut down his broadcasts with “a made-up kangaroo court debt,” NBC reported.
In 2022, Texas and Connecticut courts ordered Jones to pay the families of 20 students and six staff members killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut — but the families have yet to see a penny from Jones, per CNN.
The fate of Jones’ company, Free Speech Systems, will be decided at a bankruptcy hearing scheduled June 14.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 340 new monthly donors in the next 5 days.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy