2023-10-20 17:22:02
HOUSTON (AP) — A judge in Texas has ruled that Infowars host Alex Jones cannot file for bankruptcy to avoid paying nearly $1.1 billion to the families who sued him over his conspiracy theories that the massacre of children at Sandy Hook School was a fraud.
This is a new setback for Jones following trials in Texas and Connecticut that punished him for spreading lies regarding the nation’s deadliest school massacre. U.S. District Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston issued the ruling Thursday night.
Jones filed for bankruptcy last year, and financial documents filed by his lawyers put his net worth at $14 million. But López ruled that bankruptcy protection does not apply to “premeditated and malicious” conduct.
“The families are pleased by the court’s ruling that Jones’ malicious conduct will not find refuge in bankruptcy court,” said Christopher Mattei, a Connecticut attorney for the families. “Therefore, Jones will be held accountable for his actions going forward despite his alleged bankruptcy.”
A lawyer for Jones did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Following the massacre of 26 people by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, Jones made a false conspiracy theory the center of his Infowars program. Last year he told his audience that “I’m officially out of money” and asked them to make purchases on his Infowars website to help him stay on the air.
But his personal expenses in the month of July alone were $93,000, including thousands of dollars on meals and entertainment, according to his monthly financial reports in the bankruptcy case. Such an expense provoked the fury of the Sandy Hook families, who have not yet received a dollar of the compensation awarded by the juries.
The families won nearly $1.5 billion in damages last year in lawsuits once morest Jones for promoting the false theory that the school massacre did not happen.
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