Alex Jones takes witness stand in Connecticut Superior Court to testify at the Sandy Hook defamation damages trial in September 2022.Photo:Tyler Sizemore/AP/Shutterstock
Tyler Sizemore/AP/Shutterstock
A Texas judge has ruled that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ petition for bankruptcy protection does not shield him from making the payments he owes to families from Sandy Hook.
Last December, Jones — the host of InfoWars who spread lies about the 2012Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, claiming it was a hoax — filed for bankruptcy protection, theAssociated Pressreported. In a video posted on his site at the time, Jones said, “I’m officially out of money, personally.”
Bankruptcy can be a way to avoid paying damages like those Jones owes, but only if the defendant is cleared of any willful or malicious injury, which does not apply to Jones, the court said.
“[I]n Jones’s case, the language of the jury instruction confirms that the damages awarded flow from the allegation of intent to harm the Plaintiffs — not allegations of recklessness,” Lopez wrote in his ruling, the news outlet reported.
Connecticut lawyer Christopher Mattei said the families are “pleased with the Court’s ruling that Jones’s malicious conduct will find no safe harbor in the bankruptcy court,” per theAP. “As a result, Jones will continue to be accountable for his actions into the future regardless of his claimed bankruptcy,” the lawyer continued.
Alex Jones appears in court in Connecticut during the Sandy Hook defamation damages trial in September 2022.Tyler Sizemore/AP/Shutterstock
Jones faced charges in both Texas and Connecticut courts over the lies he repeatedly spread, claiming the shooting — which was the first mass shooting at an elementary school in U.S. history — was “manufactured” and that the parents who lost their children in the massacre were actors.
In response to the judge’s ruling that his bankruptcy filing would not protect him from the payout, Jones posted a video on InfoWars, insisting “the money doesn’t exist.” He said, “I don’t have a million dollars. My company has a few million, but that’s just to pay the bills and my product in the future. So we are literally on empty.”
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Despite Jones’ insistence that he has no money to his name, theAPreported that his personal spending in July 2023 exceeded $93,000, thousands of which were spent on food and entertainment.
Mattei issued a statement in response, saying the Sandy Hook families who have yet to be paid at all are “increasingly concerned.”
“It is disturbing that Alex Jones continues to spend money on excessive household expenditures and his extravagant lifestyle when that money rightfully belongs to the families he spent years tormenting,” Mattei said, per the AP.
source: people.com
