Sandy Hook families say Alex Jones can't hide behind bankruptcy to avoid $1 billion verdicts
Anish Vij
Featured Image Credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images / John Moore/Getty Images
The lawyers for the Sandy Hook families - who won a defamation case against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones - say he can't hide behind his $1.5 billion bankruptcy filing.
Last December, the Infowars host filed for personal bankruptcy protection in Texas as he faced nearly $1.5 billion in damages over conspiracy theories he spread about the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre.
A total of 26 people were killed by a gunman at the school in Newtown, 20 of them children.
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In October 2022, a Connecticut jury awarded the families $965 million in compensatory damages (£792 million), and a judge later tacked on another $473 million (£388 million) in punitive damages.
Earlier that year, a Texas jury awarded the parents of a child killed in the shooting $49 million (£40 million) in damages.
As a result, Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in bankruptcy court in Houston.
His filing lists $1 billion (£820 million) to $10 billion (£8.2 billion) in liabilities.
Jones' finances have since been released by a Texas bankruptcy court, which found that Jones' monthly outgoings totalled to staggering number of more than $96,000.
His top four largest monthly spends were found to be taxes ($40,000), childcare ($14,000), alimony and child support ($10,000) and domestic upkeep (over $7,000).
However, the Sandy Hook families told a federal bankruptcy judge in Houston on Tuesday that Jones should not be allowed to hide behind his bankruptcy filing.
The families asked the judge, Christopher Lopez, to order Jones to pay the full amount in damages, without a forced settlement.
Jones’s lawyer Chris Davis argued that his client's 'target is the deep state.'
"The idea that he had a willful and malicious intent is in substantial and factual dispute," Davis added.
"Jones willfully and maliciously injured [the families]," responded Avi Moshenberg, a bankruptcy lawyer representing the Sandy Hook families.
Judge Lopez did not comment on when he would rule.
At last year's bankruptcy filing, Chris Mattei - another lawyer representing the Sandy Hook families - criticised the decision.
“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 intentional and egregious attacks on others, as Mr Jones did.
“The American judicial system will hold Alex Jones accountable, and we will never stop working to enforce the jury’s verdict.”
“I’m officially out of money, personally,” Jones said at the time.
“It’s all going to be filed. It’s all going to be public. And you will see that Alex Jones has almost no cash.”