A Houston bankruptcy judge on Friday ordered the personal assets of Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to be liquidated and sold, with the proceeds distributed to Sandy Hook families. But the judge spared Mr Jones from shutting down his Infowars business empire.
The ruling will allow Mr. Jones to continue broadcasting on Infowars while the families continue to seek payment of the huge defamation damages awarded to them.
The outcome sharply divided the families of Sandy Hook. The families who sued Mr. Jones in Texas supported Friday’s ruling, which will keep Mr. Jones on the air but allow them to potentially receive more compensation from Infowars’ proceeds. The families suing Mr. Jones in Connecticut favored the settlement for less money and for Mr. Jones to be disbarred, though they acknowledged that he would not be completely silenced.
Mr Jones is appealing the rulings against him, a fight expected to last years.
Estimates in court filings put the value of Mr. Jones’ personal assets at less than $5 million, nowhere near the $1.4 billion that juries in Texas and Connecticut awarded the families in late 2022.
The $5 million split by the plaintiffs entitled to damages comes to less than $250,000 each, but that doesn’t include significant legal and administrative costs related to the bankruptcy, which are paid first.
The judge’s decision came nearly a dozen years after the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., killed 20 first-graders and six teachers.
Mr. Jones spent years spreading lies that the massacre was a hoax aimed at confiscating Americans’ firearms and that the victims’ families were complicit in the plot. The families suffered online abuse, personal confrontations and death threats from conspiracy theorists.
“The proper appeal is to dismiss this case,” Judge Christopher Lopez said in court Friday afternoon, referring to his decision to dismiss the bankruptcy and keep Infowars in business. “This case is one of the most difficult cases I’ve had, but when you look at it, I think the creditors are better served.”
In 2018, relatives of 10 victims sued Mr. Jones for defamation and were awarded more than $1.4 billion in damages in lawsuits in Texas and Connecticut.
As the cases went to court in 2022, Mr. Jones’ company filed for bankruptcy. Mr. Jones filed for personal bankruptcy soon after. The families that sued Mr. Jones in Connecticut and Texas agreed with the judge’s ruling that Mr. Jones’ personal assets should be liquidated under Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy code and the proceeds of their sale shared. between them.
Mr. Jones prepared for this outcome by creating an inventory of property, bullion, guns, boats and other assets in preparation for sale, including obtaining court permission to sell a 127-acre game ranch in Kingsbury, Texas , valued at $2.8 million. Mr Jones’ lawyer, Vicky Driver, told the court the property had been sold and the money would be transferred for distribution to the families “on day 1”.
But the Connecticut and Texas sides were sharply divided over how to go after Free Speech Systems, his company. Lawyers for the families suing Mr. Jones in Connecticut — the families of eight victims in all — argued for the company to be shut down and its assets liquidated, with the money distributed among family members.
The proceeds would be minimal, but lawyers for the Connecticut families argued that shutting down Infowars was more important than the money.
“At the end of the day, this was about holding Alex Jones accountable for his lies and the harm he has done not only to the Sandy Hook families but to so many other families and society,” Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie died in shooting. , he said in comments emailed to The New York Times.
Avi Moshenberg, a lawyer for the families suing in Texas, said in his closing statement that the outrage among lawyers who were once united against Mr. Jones surprised him.
“The standard is not, ‘What’s the worst possible thing you can do to Alex Jones to make him suffer?’ It is what is in the best interest of the creditors,” he said.
Mr. Jones has made a fortune promoting conspiracy theories on his show while selling nutritional supplements, survival gear and other merchandise. In recent weeks he has been lashing out at his listeners for trying to purge Connecticut lawyers, crying and shouting about what he has falsely claimed is a government-sponsored conspiracy to shut down Infowars and silence him.
“I’m kind of sheltered here — and don’t worry, I’ll be back,” he said on the Infowars show earlier this month. Mr. Jones’ lawyers said on Friday that the shows had driven record sales of his products to $1 million a week, an increase of about 40 percent.
Mr. Jones also urges potential buyers of his nutritional supplements to buy them from his father, whose line of supplements is called Dr. Jones’ Naturals. Mr. Jones’ father has been a financial backer and business advisor to Infowars for decades. Connecticut lawyers used those statements in court to underline their argument that he could not be trusted to work in good faith to pay the families if left in control of his business.
Lawyers for the families agreed that regardless of the judge’s decision, Mr. Jones would eventually re-incorporate under a different business name. They could go after him for those earnings, too, because of a previous court order that allows families to pursue him for the rest of his life for what he owes them.
Mr. Mossenberg said lawyers would continue to press for a promise from Mr. Jones that he would not lie about the shooting, mention the victims or their families again on his show, a priority for all families.
“There was a lot of talk about whether Jones would regain control of his business, but the reality is that he never really lost it,” Judge Lopez said Friday.
At one point in his remarks, the judge tried to compose himself, saying “there are no words” to describe the impact on the families of years of Mr. Jones’s libelous lies about them. He said he regretted issuing his decision at the start of the Father’s Day weekend, “but here we are.”
