Alex Jones plans to liquidate his assets to pay $1.5 billion in defamation damages from families of children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, who are suing him for saying the mass murder was a hoax.
Jones, host of the popular website Infowars, has abandoned efforts to resolve a judgment related to his lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and asked a U.S. judge to convert his bankruptcy to a Chapter 7 liquidation.
Jones, most of whose debt stems from $1.5 billion paid in a defamation lawsuit, believes there is no prospect of successfully restructuring the debt, his lawyers said in a court filing late Thursday.
A Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding would not allow Jones to avoid paying legal judgments, but it would provide a streamlined process for selling assets under the supervision of a court-appointed trustee.
Courts in Texas and Connecticut have ordered Jones to pay $1.5 billion to the families of 20 students and six teachers killed in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Bankruptcy can be used to wipe out debts and legal judgments, but the judge presiding over Jones’ case ruled in October that most of the defamation judgments were the result of “intentional and malicious damage” by Jones and therefore cannot be legally discharged.
Jones said on “The Alex Jones Show” on Tuesday that families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School victims were trying to get him off the show over “contrived kangaroo court debts.”
A spokesman for Sandy Hook Elementary School families declined to comment Thursday.
Jones has long maintained that the Sandy Hook massacre was staged as part of a government plot to confiscate Americans’ guns. He has since acknowledged that the shooting took place.
Sandy Hook elementary school families allege that Jones’s conspiracy theories subjected grieving parents to years of threats and harassment while he profited from driving traffic and sales to his Infowars website.
Jones had asked the families of Sandy Hook Elementary School students to support a bankruptcy settlement that would have paid them $55 million, but the families unanimously rejected the agreement.
The Sandy Hook Elementary School family has instead submitted its own proposal for liquidating Jones’ assets, and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez is scheduled to consider approving the Sandy Hook Elementary School family’s plan at a June 14 court hearing.
According to court documents, bankruptcy will likely result in the liquidation of Jones’ assets, and Jones wants to liquidate them in a less costly and more streamlined court process.
Jones initially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, allowing him to retain control of his assets while pursuing a debt restructuring plan.
But a Chapter 11 liquidation would require spending more on attorneys’ fees and court costs than a Chapter 7 liquidation, and those costs would be “without much of a benefit,” Jones’ lawyers wrote.
Earlier this week, Jones let out a bizarre battle cry and sobbed uncontrollably as he claimed the federal government was trying to shut down his Infowars platform.
With post wire
