Infowars founder Alex Jones speaks to the media outside Waterbury Superior Court during the 2022 defamation trial in Waterbury, Connecticut.
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Today is a day of reckoning for Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and a long-awaited culmination for the Sandy Hook family who are suing Jones for defamation. A federal bankruptcy judge in Texas is expected to force Jones to liquidate his personal assets, including ownership of his media company Free Speech Systems, in order to pay nearly $1.5 billion in damages to a family that spread lies that the 2012 school shooting never happened .
Jones’ influential Infowars show and website could be shut down by the end of the day, and his personal belongings – from his gun collection to jewelry – could soon be auctioned off to the highest bidder in a fire sale people. He may not even be able to access his account on X, where he currently has 2.3 million followers. However, Texas law allows him to keep homes worth more than $2 million.
The families declined to comment ahead of the court hearing, but one of their lawyers, Avi Moschenberg, said the liquidation would be “a victory in a sense” [Jones] will pay a heavy price for what he has done,” adding, “This will be a step towards dismantling [Jones’] Ability to cause more harm to family members.
On the other hand, plaintiffs are likely to recover only a fraction of what they are owed, and bankruptcy is unlikely to completely silence Jones, as some families hope. “You can’t shut him up through a Chapter 7 liquidation,” Moschenberg said. Jones had offered to reach a settlement with the family that would have barred him from talking about the Sandy Hook shooting, but the offer failed for a variety of other reasons.
“It’s a little frustrating,” Moschenberg said.
On Thursday, the court-appointed FSS trustee urged a judge to place Jones’ company into Chapter 7 liquidation as well. She called Jones’ behavior in recent broadcasts “more erratic and unhinged than his typical rhetoric” and expressed concern that his “increasingly vicious rhetoric” – including promoting a new Sandy Hook conspiracy – was weakening The value of his legacy and whatever returns it ultimately brings to the family.
Grief, Guilty and Bankruptcy
In 2018, 20 people, mostly relatives of the 20 children and six staff members killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, sued Jones for defamation in Connecticut and Texas. , “fake crying” and “acting”. As a result, the family members testified, Jones’ followers had been stalking and torturing them for years. They were harassed online and in person, bombarded with death threats, and mercilessly mocked by Jones’ followers who desecrated and threatened to dig up the graves of their loved ones to prove it was all a hoax.
“We were tortured, we were abused. The abuse we suffered over the last decade was unbearable,” said Jen Hensel, whose daughter Avielle was killed at Sandy Hook. Killed, her husband, Jeremy Richman, later died. Jones also questioned Richman’s death. “The idea behind all of this is to stop this abuse and put a stop to this behavior,” Hensel said in an interview with NPR immediately following the 2022 jury’s verdict in a defamation case. [Jones]. It is not right to do this with the blood of murdered innocent children and their teachers.
During the trial, Jones admitted the shooting and death were real. But he has long maintained that his musings and rants are protected by the First Amendment. He appeared in court with duct tape over his mouth that read “Save First,” and said in a deposition that “if questioning of public events and free speech are prohibited because it might hurt someone’s feelings, then we have Not in America anymore.
But the family rejected the idea. As one of their attorneys, Mark Bankston, told jurors: “Speech is free, but you have to pay for lies.”
Jurors in both cases ultimately agreed, and with the guilty verdicts, Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for himself and his company, Free Speech Systems. Last week, Jones agreed to move his case to a Chapter 7 liquidation after years of refusing to cooperate with the process. His lawyers declined to comment on the report, but in court documents they said it would mean fewer administrative costs and be in the best interests of all parties.
Family members of Sandy Hook victims sit in the front row as Infowars founder Alex Jones testifies during the 2022 Sandy Hook defamation trial in Waterbury, Connecticut.
Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media via The Associated Press
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Not much left after liquidation
Meanwhile, court documents show, Jones continued to spend money while in bankruptcy — spending an average of about $100,000 a month — even as his assets dwindled to about $10 million. This means that after his assets are liquidated and attorneys’ fees and costs are paid, each plaintiff is left with a total of only about $200,000. Prior to the family’s lawsuit, Jones and FSS’s combined assets were estimated to be between $135 million and $270 million, according to expert testimony in the Texas trial.
A Chapter 7 liquidation would see a trustee appointed to unearth any assets Jones may have hidden, something the family has accused him of doing, something Jones denies.
“I’m convinced he’s been preparing for the end of the world,” Moschenberg said.
For example, the family accuses Jones of using a shell company (partly owned and managed by Jones’ father) to recoup money for himself. PQPR Holdings Limited, a supplier of dietary supplements sold on the Infowars website, claims to owe more than $50 million in secured debt. If legal, Jones-related companies would be entitled to be paid before the Sandy Hook family. Lawyers for the families have called the debts fake and challenged them in court.
Jones also began encouraging his followers to purchase his lucrative line of supplements from the new company owned by his father instead of Infowars. Lawyers for the family argued that bankruptcy laws were violated.
The family is also concerned that Jones may have fabricated future income. Chapter 7 would not prohibit Jones from being reincarnated into a new company, and there are ways for him to continue working and adjust his future compensation so that it would be difficult for the family to afford it. Jones said on this week’s show that he has received numerous offers to work for other people. But the bankruptcy trustee in Jones’ case will have the right to continue to recover his assets forever. Unlike most cases in which bankruptcy eliminates debt and provides debtors with a fresh start, the judge ruled that Jones was not entitled to a clean slate because his misconduct was malicious and intentional. This means the family can continue indefinitely not only to search for any funds Jones may have hidden, but also for any future income.
“The point is, he’s going to be looking back at these plaintiffs for the rest of his life,” said Bruce Markel, a professor at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law.
An ironic twist for the Sandy Hook family
But Markle noted that families may find themselves in a somewhat awkward position, with their chances of recovering more of the money Jones owes them dependent on whether Jones continues his conspiracy-laden broadcasts, for which they sued him.
“The irony is that those harmed by Jones’ bile [would] “Profit from the bile he spews afterwards,” Markle said.
In fact, experts say delivering what families see as justice in such cases is well beyond the ability of bankruptcy courts. “I sometimes say it’s a bit like hammering a nail in with a screwdriver,” Markle quipped. “It’s not the best tool to achieve what you’re trying to achieve.”
Despite the family’s hopes, Jones’ experience may not actually be a deterrent to others. Instead, those with the most influence and deepest pockets may view large defamation verdicts as a cost of doing business, said First Amendment attorney Kenneth P. White.
“Whether it’s Alex Jones or a former president of the United States, or anyone who easily gets attention by making big statements and attacking other people, unfortunately, I think the price is worth it for some people, as long as it’s Meaning they can continue to rile up these crowds, get these donors into political campaigns, get these people to buy the snake oil of advertising on their show,” White said. “It was a harsh realization.”
Jones, meanwhile, is appealing the defamation verdict that bankrupted him and a judge’s decision that his family can go after every dollar he made for the rest of his life.
