Infowars host Alex Jones is filing for bankruptcy, court records show

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, on the hook for more than $1 billion for lies he spread about the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, filed for personal bankruptcy, court documents turned out Friday.

In seeking Chapter 11 protection, the Infowars host filed standard Texas bankruptcy filings, claiming he was worth $1 million to $10 million and had debts of $1 billion to $10 billion.

The filing comes weeks after a Connecticut jury ordered him to pay $965 million to the families of eight victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and an FBI agent who responded to the attack for the distress he caused them. by spreading lies on its platforms about the mass shooting. .

Connecticut Judge Barbara Bellis later imposed damages of $473 million for promoting those false conspiracy theories about Sandy Hook, bringing the bill to a whopping $1.44 billion.

Chris Mattei, an attorney for Sandy Hook families in that Connecticut lawsuit, said Jones will not escape monetary judgment.

“Like every other cowardly move Alex Jones has made, this bankruptcy will not work,” Mattei said in a statement.

“The bankruptcy system does not protect anyone who engages in deliberate and blatant assaults on others, as Mr. Jones did. The American justice system will hold Alex Jones accountable and we will never stop working to enforce the jury’s verdict.”

The personal bankruptcy filing fell in Houston Judge Christopher M. López’s courtroom.

If Jones hopes that the civil sentences against him will be waived, he will have to convince López that he is not responsible for inflicting a “intentional and malicious injuryaccording to bankruptcy codes.

“The judge may or may not rule that the claims (eligible to be) waived,” said Frances Smith, chairman of the Texas State Bar’s Bankruptcy Act.

“You have to be very careful when dealing with statutes. But the language of the statute is for ‘intentional and malicious injury by the debtor.'” The court may rule that it is not remission.”

Earlier this year, a Texas civil jury awarded the parents of a child murdered in Sandy Hook $49.3 million in damages.

In addition to this personal bankruptcy filing, Jones’ company, Free Speech Systems Inc., filed for creditor protection in July.

After years of denial, Jones recently said the The Sandy Hook massacre was real – contrary to previous claims that the shooting was a hoax carried out by actors as part of a plot to seize guns from Americans.

In one of the most infamous mass murders in the country, Adam Lanza killed his mother at their home in Newtown on December 14, 2012 before attending the school and killing 20 children and six adults.

Lanza died of a self-inflicted wound.

Chelsea Damberg contributed.