A federal judge ordered the order Friday liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ personal assets and was still deciding his company’s separate bankruptcy case. The decision could determine the future of his Infowars media platform, as Jones owes $1.5 billion for his false claims that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
Judge Christopher Lopez approved the conversion of Jones’ proposed personal bankruptcy reorganization into a liquidation. He would still decide whether Jones’ company, Austin, Texas-based Free Speech Systems, should also be liquidated.
Many of Jones’ personal assets will be sold, but he is expected to keep his primary residence in the Austin area and some other assets that are exempt from bankruptcy liquidation. He has already moved to sell his Texas ranch worth about $2.8 million, a gun collection and other assets to help pay debts.
Jones didn’t really react after the judge issued the order over his personal belongings. CBS affiliate KHOU reported that every seat in the gallery was filled when the hearing began this morning.
Jones has told his web viewers and radio listeners that Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, is on the verge of closing due to bankruptcy. A headline on the Infowars website Friday read: “Watch Live! Will This Be the Last Day of Infowars Broadcasts?”
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“This is probably the end of Infowars here very, very quickly. If not today, then in the coming weeks or months,” Jones told reporters before the hearing began. “But it’s just the beginning of my fight against tyranny.”
Jones has urged his followers to download videos from his online archive for safekeeping and direct them to a new website for his father’s company if they want to continue buying the nutritional supplements he sells on his show.
Jones and Austin, Texas-based Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022 as family members of many victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting that killed 20 first-graders and six teachers in Newtown, Connecticut. won lawsuits worth more than $1.4 billion in Connecticut and $49 million in Texas.
Attorneys for the Sandy Hook families have requested liquidation.
“Doing so will help Connecticut families enforce their $1.4 billion judgments now and in the future, while also depriving Jones of the ability to inflict massive harm as he has done for some 25 years has done,” said Chris Mattei, a lawyer for the families in the US. the Connecticut case, said.
The family members said they were traumatized by Jones’ comments and the actions of his followers. They testified that they were harassed and threatened by Jones’ believers, some of whom personally confronted the grieving families and said the shooting never happened and their children never existed. One parent said someone threatened to dig up his dead son’s grave.
Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emily was among those killed in the shooting, told CBS News before the hearing that seeing Jones take responsibility is “part of a healing process” for him.
“There’s the forgiveness part, which is something very internal, very sacred and personal, and then there are the things that you see in your life that have been influenced by things that Alex Jones has done, and so accountability helps provide another layer of closure. bring,” said Parker.
Jones and Free Speech Systems initially filed for bankruptcy reorganization protection, which would have allowed him to run Infowars while paying the families with revenue from his show. But the two sides couldn’t agree on a final plan, and Jones recently requested permission to convert his personal bankruptcy from a reorganization to a liquidation.
The families in the Connecticut lawsuit, including relatives of eight dead children and adults, have asked that Free Speech Systems’ separate bankruptcy case also be converted into a liquidation. But the parents in the Texas case — whose child, six-year-old Jesse Lewis, died — want the company’s case dismissed.
“You can forgive someone, but that doesn’t mean you forget,” Scarlett Lewis, Jesse’s mother, told CBS News before the judge ruled. “They need to be held accountable so they don’t do it to someone else.”
Lawyers for the company have filed documents showing it supports the liquidation, but attorneys for Jones’ personal bankruptcy case filed a motion Wednesday saying he does not support that plan and wants a judge to dismiss the company’s case.
If Free Speech Systems’ case is dismissed, the company could return to the same position it found itself in after the $1.5 billion award in the lawsuits. Efforts to collect damages would go back to state courts in Texas and Connecticut. That could give Infowars a longer lifeline as its fundraising efforts pan out.
Although he has since acknowledged that the Sandy Hook shoots What happened, Jones has said on his recent shows that Democrats and the “deep state” are conspiring to shut down his businesses and take away his right to free speech because of his views. He also said that Sandy Hook Families are used as pawns in the conspiracy. The families’ lawyers say that is nonsense.
According to the most recent financial statements filed in bankruptcy court, Jones personally has about $9 million in assets, including his $2.6 million Austin-area home and other real estate. He reported that his living expenses were approximately $69,000 in April alone, including approximately $16,500 for home expenses.
Free Speech Systems, which employs 44 people, earned nearly $3.2 million in April, including from sales of the nutritional supplements, clothing and other items Jones promotes on his show, while he reported $1.9 million in expenses.
The families have a pending lawsuit in Texas accusing Jones of illegally diverting and concealing millions of dollars. Jones has denied the allegations.
