Radio host Alex Jones is in danger of losing his Infowars media platform when a federal bankruptcy court is scheduled to rule Friday on whether to sell assets to pay off $1.5 billion in debt Jones owes for false claims about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
A hearing is scheduled in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston to decide the fate of the media company he has transformed into a multimillion-dollar revenue generator over the past 25 years, according to the Associated Press.
According to the Associated Press, Jones told his web and radio viewers that Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, was on the verge of closing due to bankruptcy.
File/Infowars founder Alex Jones takes a question from plaintiff’s attorney Chris Mattei next to Judge Barbara Bellis, right, during testimony in the Sandy Hook defamation trial in Connecticut Superior Court in Waterbury, Connecticut, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022. (Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media via The Associated Press, Pool)
He also reportedly urged viewers to download the videos from an online archive for their own preservation, and pointed them to his father’s company’s new website if they wanted to continue purchasing the nutritional supplements sold on the show.
Jones, 50, reportedly said on his show on Wednesday that although he could lose the company within hours or days, he remained optimistic about his own future.
I think it’s very accurate to say that Infowars is a sinking ship.
Infowars will live on thanks to all the great work we’ve done, all the reports we’ve submitted, and all of you who saved and shared them. And of course, I will come back stronger than ever.
But I intend to remain on board until the ship has completely sunk. … At the last moment I will board the next ship.
Liquidation means Jones’ assets will be sold to repay debts.
Jones also may ultimately lose ownership of Free Speech Systems, Infowars, its social media accounts, and all associated copyrights, as reported by Breitbart News.
Final details have yet to be determined.
Jones and Austin, Texas-based Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022 after families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 20 first-graders and six teachers won legal judgments of more than $1.4 billion in Connecticut and $49 million in Texas.
FILE/Infowars host Alex Jones rallies supporters in Phoenix, Nov. 5, 2020. A federal bankruptcy court judge has allowed a defamation lawsuit filed against Jones by families of victims of the 2012 mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, to proceed. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)
Lawyers for Sandy Hook victims’ families are seeking justice.
“This would allow the Connecticut families to enforce their $1.4 billion judgment now and in the future, while also denying Mr. Jones the ability to inflict mass harm as he has done for nearly 25 years,” Chris Mattei, the family’s attorney in the Connecticut case, said, according to the Associated Press.
