A court-appointed trustee in Alex Jones’ bankruptcy proceedings is drawing up plans to close Infowars and liquidate its assets to help pay off the $1.5 billion Jones owes to the families of the shooting victims Sandy Hook Elementary School.
In filing an emergency motion in a Texas bankruptcy court, trustee Christopher Murray revealed Sunday that he plans an “orderly wind-down” of the Infowars parent company’s operations and a liquidation of its assets. He has asked a bankruptcy judge to postpone the case so he can go through the process.
Jones’ attorney did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
If the emergency motion is granted, it would mean the end of Infowars, a platform Jones has used to spread lies about the 2012 shooting that killed 20 first-grade children and six adults. Earlier this month, a bankruptcy judge allowed Jones to liquidate his personal assets to pay the judgments he owes the families, but he dismissed a bankruptcy case for his media company Free Speech Systems, which runs Infowars.
That ruling meant that Jones could continue broadcasting on Infowars for the time being. Jones has been warning his viewers for weeks that the bankruptcy proceedings could put an end to his show.
The emergency motion was filed amid a disagreement between two groups of Sandy Hook parents — those who sued Jones in Connecticut and those who sued him in Texas — over how to collect the money Jones owed them. None of the families have received money from him yet; if and when they do, it will likely be a fraction of the amount he has to pay.
Murray said he filed his emergency motion after a Texas court on Friday approved the Texas plaintiffs’ request that Free Speech Systems transfer certain assets to the families and seize their accounts.
“The specter of a sudden seizure of FSS’s assets, including its cash, threatens to throw the company into chaos, potentially leaving the company in dire straits, to the detriment of the interests of the Chapter 7 estate for which the Trustee is responsible . Murray wrote asking the bankruptcy judge to intervene “to prevent a value-destroying cash grab and allow an orderly process to take its course.”
Christopher Mattei, an attorney representing the Sandy Hook families in the lawsuit against Jones in Connecticut, said in a statement that the Texas plaintiffs’ request would “undermine” an equitable distribution of Jones’ assets among all families. Mattei said his clients support the trustee’s emergency motion.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
