Headline Roundup • June 7th, 2024
Alex Jones Seeks to Liquidate His Assets to Pay Defamation Judgment
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Alex Jones is seeking to liquidate his personal assets in order to pay his defamation judgement to the families of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting.
For Context: In 2022, a Connecticut jury concluded that Alex Jones, host of InfoWars (Right bias), should pay $965 million in defamation retribution to the family members of those killed in the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012. The defamation suit came from a number of statements made by Jones in the aftermath of the shooting, including claims that the massacre was a hoax concocted to restrict gun rights.
Details: Jones’ previously filed for bankruptcy, but on Thursday, his attorney submitted a new filing requesting to change to a Chapter 7 liquidation. Included in the expected liquidation is Free Speech Systems, the parent company of InfoWars, Jones’ media outlet. A sale of Free Speech Systems would mean Jones would no longer control the media outlet he founded in the 1990s.
Key Quotes: “There is no reasonable prospect of a successful reorganization,” Jones’ lawyer said in the filing.
How the Media Covered It: Outlets across the spectrum characterized Jones as a “conspiracy theorist.” CNN (Lean Left bias) specifically labeled him a “right-wing conspiracy theorist,” adding that he has used InfoWars to “poison the public discourse with vile lies and conspiracy theories, but also to enrich himself to the tune of millions of dollars.” A large portion of coverage across the spectrum focused on a recent emotional outburst from Jones during an episode of InfoWars.
Featured Coverage of this Story
Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Thursday moved to liquidate his personal assets, agreeing to demands from the families of Sandy Hook victims whom he owes more than $1.5 billion in damages over his lies about the 2012 school massacre.
The seismic move paves the way for a future in which Jones no longer owns Infowars, the influential conspiracy empire he founded in the late 1990s. Over the years, Jones has not only used the media company to poison the public discourse with vile lies and conspiracy theories, but also...
Reuters
Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has asked a US court to liquidate his assets, legal filings show, which could allow him to start paying damages he owes the familes of victims of a 2012 school shooting.
The surviving families of the Sandy Hook shooting have not yet seen any of $1.5bn (£1.32bn) Mr Jones was ordered to pay in 2022.
The request, filed in a Texas court on Thursday, could speed up payments to the families, some of whom have faced harassment over Mr Jones’s claims.
Mr Jones and his...
REUTERS
Alex Jones will liquidate his assets to help pay off a $1.5 billion defamation judgment against him after he was sued by the families of the children who died in the Sandy Hook school shooting for saying that the massacre was a hoax.
Jones, the host of the popular Infowars site, has asked a US judge to convert his bankruptcy into a Chapter 7 liquidation, giving up on an effort to settle the judgments related to his lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.
Jones believes that “there...
