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Alex Jones faces day of reckoning over what he owes Sandy Hook families [View all]
Last edited Fri Jun 14, 2024, 06:43 AM - Edit history (1)
https://www.npr.org/2024/06/14/nx-s1-4991095/alex-jones-bankruptcy-sandy-hook-judge-liquidate-chapter7Alex Jones faces day of reckoning over what he owes Sandy Hook families
JUNE 14, 2024 5:01 AM ET
By Tovia Smith
It’s a day of reckoning today for Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and a long-awaited culmination for the Sandy Hook families who sued Jones for defamation. A federal bankruptcy judge in Texas is expected to force Jones to liquidate his personal assets, including ownership of his media company, Free Speech Systems, in order to pay families nearly $1.5 billion in damages for spreading lies that the 2012 school shooting never happened.
Jones' influential Infowars show and website could be shut down by the end of the day, and his personal belongings — from his gun collection to his jewelry — could soon be auctioned to the highest bidder in something of a fire sale. He could even lose access to his account on X, where he currently has 2.3 million followers. However, Texas law allows him to keep his home, which is worth more than $2 million.
The families declined to comment ahead of the court hearing, but one of their attorneys, Avi Moshenberg, said liquidation would be "a victory in the sense that [Jones] is going to pay a heavy price" for what he did, adding, "It will be a big step toward dismantling [Jones'] ability to inflict any more harm on the families."
On the other hand, the plaintiffs are likely to collect only a tiny fraction of what they're owed, and bankruptcy is unlikely to silence Jones fully, as some families had hoped. "You can’t force him to shut up through a Chapter 7 liquidation," Moshenberg said. Jones had proposed a settlement with families that would have barred him from talking about the Sandy Hook shooting, but for various other reasons, that offer failed.
[...]
JUNE 14, 2024 5:01 AM ET
By Tovia Smith
It’s a day of reckoning today for Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and a long-awaited culmination for the Sandy Hook families who sued Jones for defamation. A federal bankruptcy judge in Texas is expected to force Jones to liquidate his personal assets, including ownership of his media company, Free Speech Systems, in order to pay families nearly $1.5 billion in damages for spreading lies that the 2012 school shooting never happened.
Jones' influential Infowars show and website could be shut down by the end of the day, and his personal belongings — from his gun collection to his jewelry — could soon be auctioned to the highest bidder in something of a fire sale. He could even lose access to his account on X, where he currently has 2.3 million followers. However, Texas law allows him to keep his home, which is worth more than $2 million.
The families declined to comment ahead of the court hearing, but one of their attorneys, Avi Moshenberg, said liquidation would be "a victory in the sense that [Jones] is going to pay a heavy price" for what he did, adding, "It will be a big step toward dismantling [Jones'] ability to inflict any more harm on the families."
On the other hand, the plaintiffs are likely to collect only a tiny fraction of what they're owed, and bankruptcy is unlikely to silence Jones fully, as some families had hoped. "You can’t force him to shut up through a Chapter 7 liquidation," Moshenberg said. Jones had proposed a settlement with families that would have barred him from talking about the Sandy Hook shooting, but for various other reasons, that offer failed.
[...]
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