HOUSTON (AP) – A Texas judge has ruled that Infowars is the host Alex Jones cannot use bankruptcy protection to avoid paying more than $1.1 billion to families who sued over their conspiracy theories that the Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax.
The decision is another major defeat for Jones following juries in Texas and Connecticut that convicted him of spreading falsehoods about the nation’s deadliest school shooting. U.S. District Judge Christopher Lopez of Houston issued the sentence Thursday.
Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year and the most recent financial documents filed by his lawyers put his personal net worth at around $14 million. But Lopez ruled that those protections do not apply to findings of “willful and malicious” conduct.
“The families are pleased with the Court’s decision that Jones’ malicious conduct will not find safe harbor in bankruptcy court,” said Christopher Mattei, Connecticut attorney for the families. “As a result, Jones will continue to be responsible for his actions going forward, regardless of his claimed bankruptcy.”
An attorney for Jones did not immediately return a message seeking comment Friday.
On his Infowars website, Jones posted a video saying the judge’s ruling will have little practical effect because he is more than $1 million in debt personally and has little to pay the Sandy Hook families. He also said he is continuing to appeal the rulings.
“It’s all academic. I don’t have a million dollars,” he said. “My company has a few million, but that’s just to pay the bills and my product in the future. So we are literally empty. So this idea that… we’re going to take your money away doesn’t exist because the money doesn’t exist. Everything is political.
“At the end of the day, they’re not going to take away my free speech,” he said. “I’ll still be on the air one way or another.”
After 26 people were killed by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, Jones made a false conspiracy theory a centerpiece of his programming on his flagship show Infowars. He has been telling his audience to donate to him and buy from the Infowars website so he can keep doing his show and pay his legal fees.
But Jones’ personal expenses it topped $93,000 in July alone, including thousands of dollars in meals and entertainment, according to his monthly financial reports in the bankruptcy case. The expense made Sandy Hook families nervous, as they have yet to collect any of the money awarded to them by juries.
Sandy Hook families won nearly $1.5 billion in lawsuits against Jones last year in lawsuits over his repeated promotion of a false theory that the school shooting never happened.
The amount of money Jones owes the families of Sandy Hook could grow even more. Another lawsuit is pending in Texas, filed by the parents of 6-year-old Noah Pozner, one of the children killed in the attack. A trial date has not yet been set.
Relatives of the victims testified at the trials about being harassed and threatened by Jones’ believers, who sent threats and even personally confronted grieving families, accusing them of being “crisis actors” whose children never existed.
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