A U.S. bankruptcy judge ordered the court-supervised liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ personal assets but dismissed the bankruptcy of his company, Free Speech Systems, without ordering its liquidation.
Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez appointed a Chapter 7 trustee to sell Jones’ assets, including his ownership stake in Free Speech Systems, the parent company of his Infowars website.
The proceeds will go to pay Jones’ creditors, which include relatives of 20 students and six staff members killed in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Lopez allowed Jones to continue running the company until the trustee sells his ownership stake, rejecting an argument by some of the Sandy Hook families that Jones should not regain control of his company. The judge stated that the bankruptcy court’s supervision had never impacted Jones’ broadcasts.
“There’s been lots of talk about whether Mr. Jones has regained control of the business, but the reality is he never really lost it,” Lopez said.
This split ruling will lead to further litigation between Jones, his company, and the Sandy Hook families, including battles over $6 million in cash held by Free Speech Systems. The families will also continue trying to collect money that Jones kept from them by sending it to his wife, father, and close associates.
The proposed liquidation of Free Speech Systems split the Sandy Hook families. Families who sued Jones in Connecticut argued that an immediate shutdown would prevent him from hiding the company’s cash or undermining the company from the inside.
Paying more
Families who sued Jones in Texas argued instead that he would pay more in the long run if he kept control of his business instead of “selling it for scraps.”
“You can’t control Alex Jones,” said Avi Moshenberg, an attorney for the Texas families. “What you can do, what the law allows, is to make Alex Jones and Free Speech Systems pay on the judgments that were rendered by juries.”
Jones’ attorney, Vickie Driver, claimed the Connecticut families wanted to override Jones’ First Amendment right to free speech. Driver argued that even forcing Infowars into liquidation “doesn’t stop Mr. Jones from saying what he wants, when he wants, on his broadcast.”
Chris Mattei, an attorney for the Connecticut families, described the ruling as a “good day” and predicted that Infowars would soon be defunct. “Alex Jones is neither a martyr nor a victim,” Mattei said. “He is the perpetrator of the worst defamation in American history.”
Father’s Day
Lopez appeared emotional at one point during his ruling, noting the painful irony of deciding Infowars’ fate just before Father’s Day. He expressed deep sympathy for the families, saying, “I wish I would have picked a better day.”
Lopez deferred decisions on some demands by the Sandy Hook families, who have sought control over Jones’ social media accounts and the ability to choose the trustee responsible for collecting assets from Jones to pay some of the $1.5 billion in defamation judgments awarded to the families. Lopez said those decisions could be made later.
Jones filed for bankruptcy protection 17 months ago but failed to reach a settlement to reduce the $1.5 billion he owes the Sandy Hook families after courts in Connecticut and Texas ruled that he defamed them with repeated false statements about the massacre. Jones had claimed for years that the Sandy Hook killings were staged with actors as part of a government plot to seize Americans’ guns, but he has since acknowledged the shooting occurred. The judge overseeing Jones’ bankruptcy ruled that most of the debt would survive after liquidation, as it resulted from “willful and malicious” conduct.
