The Infowars host Alex Jones has asked a court to sell off his assets to help meet a $1.5bn defamation judgment against him and his companies over public comments he made claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting was faked.
In a court filing, Jones dropped his petition merely to go into bankruptcy, admitted that he has to pay the Sandy Hook families, and asked the judge to convert the bankruptcy into a Chapter 7 liquidation.
If agreed to by a court in Texas, the move could end Jones’s ownership of Infowars, the influential rightwing business and platform he founded in the late 1990s that he used to broadcast conspiracy theories – and enrich himself with millions of dollars by marketing herbal supplements in the process.
On Thursday, lawyers for Jones told the bankruptcy court that “there is no reasonable prospect of a successful reorganization” of his debts and liquidation would be a more streamlined procedure for selling his assets under the supervision of a court-appointed trustee.
Earlier this week, the relatives of the Sandy Hook elementary school victims called for the court to reject Jones’s petition to financially reorganize his company, arguing that Jones’s Free Speech Systems, which includes Infowars, has “no prospect” of getting a reorganization plan approved and had “failed to demonstrate any hope of beginning to satisfy” the judgment.
Under a liquidation, the families, who have not yet received any of the payment owed by Jones, are less likely to see any money. But Jones would be forced to sell most of what he owns, including his company and its assets, though he could keep his home and other personal belongings, according to the Associated Press.
In a tearful, four-hour “emergency broadcast” last weekend, Jones said there was a conspiracy against him, and that he expected Infowars to be shut down in the next month or two.
On Tuesday, he said on his show that the Sandy Hook families were trying to shut down his broadcasts with “a made-up kangaroo court debt”.
Jones and his company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after victims’ families won lawsuits in Texas and Connecticut for defamation and emotional distress.
Jones, who built up a profitable business on the back of his web-based show selling products such as Super Male Vitality supplements, Lung Cleanse Plus Spray and Prostagard pills, said the mass shooting was a “false flag” operation staged by crisis actors to prompt more gun control in the US.
At trial, some family members of the victims said they had been harassed and threatened by Jones’s followers. Jones later apologized and acknowledged that the shooting occurred.
