InfoWars liquidated to pay damages to school shooting families

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars media platform and its assets will be sold off piece by piece in auctions this fall to help pay the more than $1 billion (€890 million) that the notorious right-wing extremist has been ordered to pay relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

In an order expected to be approved by a federal judge, US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez said during a court hearing Tuesday that he will approve the auctions that start in November.

However, he will first amend a previous order to make it clear that the trustee overseeing Jones’ personal bankruptcy case will control all the assets of Infowars’ parent company Free Speech Systems, which Jones currently owns in its entirety.

The two cases against Jones that resulted in the massive awards were brought by families of those killed in the 2012 school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in which a shooter murdered 20 children aged 6 and 7 as well as six school staff.

Jones, who enjoyed a massive audience during InfoWars’ heyday, repeatedly called the massacre a hoax staged by “crisis actors” to get more gun control legislation passed.

During two civil trials in Texas and Connecticut, parents and children of many of the victims testified that they were traumatised by Jones’ conspiracies and the actions of his followers.

The plaintiffs were harassed and threatened by Jones’ true believers, some of whom confronted them in person, saying the shooting never happened and their children never existed. One parent said someone threatened to dig up his dead son’s grave.

Jones and his company both filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022 after the families won nearly $1.5 billion (€1.34 billion) across the two lawsuits for defamation and emotional distress.

Jones is appealing the civil jury verdicts, citing free speech rights and questioning whether the families proved any connection between his comments and the behaviour of the people who harassed and threatened them. He has since acknowledged that the shooting did happen.

Despite his imminent loss of the company, Jones has vowed to continue his talk shows through other means, most likely via a new website and social media channels.

He also has suggested that Infowars’ assets could be bought by his supporters, allowing him to continue hosting his show as an employee under the Infowars brand in their home city of Austin, Texas.

“It’s very cut and dry that the assets of Free Speech Systems, the website, the equipment, the shopping cart, all that, can be sold,” Jones said on a recent show. “And they know full well that there are a bunch of patriot buyers, and then the operation can ease on.”

Taken apart

If approved, the sell-off order would put Infowars’ intellectual property up for auction on 13 November including its trademarks, copyrighted material, social media accounts and websites.

Jones’ personal social media sites, including his account on the social platform X, which has 2.8 million followers, would not be included.

However, the trustee overseeing Jones’ bankruptcy case, Christopher Murray, said Tuesday that he may soon seek court permission to also liquidate Jones’ personal social media accounts and his other intellectual property.

The Sandy Hook families who won the Connecticut lawsuit want Jones to lose his personal social media accounts. Their lawyers further contend that the families should get a chunk of all of Jones’ future earnings to help pay off his debt.

Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, said the judge’s signing of the auction order will be “a significant step forward” in the family’s efforts to make Jones pay for the impact of the hoax he fuelled.

“Alex Jones will no longer own or control the company he built,” Mattei said in a statement Tuesday. “This brings the families closer to their goal of holding him accountable for the harm he has caused.”

The rest of Infowars’ assets, including computers, video cameras and other studio equipment, would be sold at a later auction.

Paying out

It’s unclear how much money might be raised by selling Infowars and Jones’ assets — or how much of that money the Sandy Hook families would get.

First in line for payment are the lawyers, financial experts and others who worked on Jones’ bankruptcy cases, who have collectively racked up millions of dollars in fees and expenses.

Jones has made millions of dollars over the years selling dietary supplements, apparel, survival gear, books and other items he promotes on his shows, which air on the internet and dozens of radio stations.

A remaining legal dispute in the bankruptcy case is whether Free Speech Systems owes tens of millions of dollars to another Jones-owned company, PQPR Holdings Limited.

While Free Speech Systems buys dietary supplements from PQPR to sell on the Infowars website, PQPR claims it is still owed for many of the purchases and has filed liens. Sandy Hook lawyers allege the debt is bogus.

If the debt is found to be valid, that could reduce any amount the Sandy Hook families ultimately get from the liquidations.