A Houston bankruptcy judge on Friday ordered the liquidation and sale of Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' personal assets with the proceeds distributed to families of Sandy Hook Elementary School inmates, but the judge spared Jones from shutting down his Infowars business empire.
The ruling means Jones can continue broadcasting on Infowars, but his family will continue to seek huge damages for defamation.
The ruling has deeply divided Sandy Hook families. Jones' family members who sued in Texas upheld Friday's ruling, which allows him to stay on the air but could potentially receive a larger damages award from Infowars' revenues. Jones' family members who sued in Connecticut supported a smaller settlement that would take Jones off the air, while acknowledging that he would not be silenced completely.
Jones is appealing the sentence, a fight that is expected to take years.
Jones' personal assets are estimated to be worth less than $5 million, according to court documents, far short of the $1.4 billion that juries in Texas and Connecticut awarded his family in late 2022.
Dividing the $5 million among the plaintiffs entitled to damages comes to less than $250,000 each, but that doesn't include the significant bankruptcy-related legal and administrative fees that will be paid out initially.
The ruling came nearly 12 years after the December 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, left 20 first-graders and six teachers dead.
Jones spent years spreading the lie that the massacre was a hoax designed to confiscate Americans' firearms, and that the victims' families were part of a conspiracy. The victims' families faced online abuse, personal confrontations, and death threats from believers in the conspiracy theory.
“The right decision is to dismiss this case,” Judge Christopher Lopez said in court Friday afternoon about his decision to dismiss the bankruptcy and keep Infowars afloat. “This case is one of the most difficult I have presided over, but upon careful consideration, I believe this will result in a better outcome for creditors.”
In 2018, the families of 10 victims sued Jones for defamation and won more than $1.4 billion in damages in courts in Texas and Connecticut.
When the case went to court in 2022, Jones' companies declared bankruptcy. Jones declared personal bankruptcy soon after. Family members who sued Jones in Connecticut and Texas agreed with a judge's ruling that Jones' personal assets should be liquidated under Chapter 7 bankruptcy and the proceeds of the sale should be divided among his family members.
Jones has been preparing for that outcome by inventorying his real estate, jewelry, guns, boats and other possessions in preparation for the sale, and getting court permission to sell his 127-acre hunting ranch in Kingsbury, Texas, valued at $2.8 million. Jones' lawyer, Vicki Driver, said in court that the property has been sold and the money will be distributed to the family “on day one.”
But Connecticut and Texas were divided on how to pursue Jones' company, Free Speech Systems, Inc. Lawyers for the families of eight Jones victims who sued in Connecticut favored closing the company down, liquidating its assets and distributing the money among the family.
Though the proceeds are small, the Connecticut family's lawyers argued that shutting down Infowars is more important than money.
“Ultimately, this was all about holding Alex Jones accountable for his lies and the harm he caused not only to the families of the Sandy Hook shooter, but so many other families and communities,” Robbie Parker, who lost his daughter Emily in the shooting, said in a text message to The New York Times.
In closing statements, Avi Moshenberg, the family's lawyer who filed the lawsuit in Texas, said he was surprised by the hostility among lawyers who had once been united against Jones.
“The standard is not, 'What is the worst thing that can hurt Alex Jones?' but what is best for creditors,” he said.
Jones, who has made a fortune spreading conspiracy theories on his airwaves while promoting diet supplements, survival gear and other products, has stoked listener anger in recent weeks over a campaign by Connecticut lawyers to disband Infowars and falsely cry that it's a government-backed plot to shut him down.
“I'm kind of in a bunker here, but don't worry, I'll be back,” Jones said on Infowars earlier this month. Jones' lawyers said Friday that Infowars episodes in recent days have helped drive record sales of his products, up $1 million a week, or about 40 percent.
Jones also encouraged potential buyers of diet supplements to buy them from his father, who branded the supplements “Dr. Jones Naturals.” Jones' father was a financial backer and business adviser to Infowars for decades. Connecticut's lawyers cited those statements in court to underscore their argument that letting his father run the business couldn't be trusted to be honest about paying family members.
Lawyers for the family agreed that Jones would eventually restart the business under a different name, regardless of the judge's decision. The family could also seek Jones' income because of a previous ruling that gave them lifelong access to the money he was owed.
Moshenberg said his lawyers will continue to ask Jones for a commitment not to lie about the shooting and never again mention the victims or their families on his show, a top priority for all the families.
“While there has been much discussion about whether Mr. Jones regained control of the business, the reality is that he never lost control,” Judge Lopez said Friday.
The judge lost his composure mid-sentence, saying, “Words cannot describe the impact that Mr. Jones's perpetration of slanderous lies against the family over the course of years has had on the family.” The judge said he regretted imposing the sentence so early in the Father's Day weekend but “this is the reality.”
