Texas judge rules Infowars hosts Alex Jones Bankruptcy protection cannot be used to avoid paying more than $1.1 billion to families sued over conspiracy theories that the Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax.
The decision is another major failure for Jones after juries in Texas and Connecticut punished him for spreading lies about the nation’s worst school shooting. U.S. District Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston issued the ruling Thursday.
jones Filing Chapter 11 Bankruptcy His most recent financial documents, filed last year and by his attorney, show his personal net worth is approximately $14 million. But Lopez ruled that those protections did not apply to findings of “intentional and malicious” conduct.
“The family is pleased with the court’s ruling that Jones’ malicious conduct will not find safe harbor in bankruptcy court,” said Connecticut family attorney Christopher Mattei. “Therefore, regardless of Jones’s claims of bankruptcy, he will Continue to be responsible for your future actions.”
Jones’ attorney did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Friday.
After 26 people were killed by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, Jones made false conspiracy theories a centerpiece of his flagship Infowars show. Last year, he told viewers he was “officially out of money” and asked them to shop on his Infowars website to help him keep streaming.
But Jones’s personal expenses It topped $93,000 in July aloneThat included thousands of dollars in dining and entertainment expenses, according to his monthly financial reports in the bankruptcy case. The payouts have upset the Sandy Hook family because they have not yet received any of the awards awarded to them by the jury.
Last year, the Sandy Hook family won nearly $1.5 billion in a lawsuit against Jones for repeatedly promoting false theories about school shootings.
Jones may owe even more to the Sandy Hook family. Another lawsuit is pending in Texas 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 victim testified at the trial that Harassment and threats Jones followers issued threats and even personally confronted grieving families, accusing them of being “crisis actors” whose children never existed.
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