A Texas judge handling bankruptcy claims covering the Alex Jones-run company Free Speech Systems dealt the far-right conspiracy theorist a significant setback this week.
The judge, Christopher Lopez, dismissed Jones’s attorney and chief restructuring officer from the case, in which the duo were angling for the reorganization of the company, which Jones claims is tens of millions in debt to a company available info indicates he and members of his family control. The Jones family’s control of the latter entity obviously undercuts the idea the debt is legitimate. Lopez pushed the two out of the proceedings amid concerns about a lack of transparency on Jones’s part in the context of the bankruptcy claims — concerns partly tracing back to the extremist figure’s high personal spending. As a trial over financial damages for defamation for which Jones was found liable proceeds in Connecticut, Jones is spending big on security. He dropped $80,000 on it, and he has also spent tens of thousands of dollars via credit cards.
Relatedly, Lopez also specified that new additions to the team brought on by a Department of Justice-appointed trustee on the case can’t hold prior ties to legal troubles in which Jones is ensnared. “There has to be greater transparency in this case,” Lopez said. “Without transparency, people lose faith in the process.” Lopez specified a “lack of candor” on the part of Free Speech Systems as among his concerns warranting his actions. Jones already essentially personally confirmed that his bankruptcy claims are an attempt to at least lessen the rhetorical blow from the trials he is facing over his defamatory lies about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. These lies led to the litigation, amid which Jones was found at fault by default after he failed to sufficiently comply with the discovery process in four separate cases. One subsequent trial dealing only with the damages to impose in response to two Sandy Hook parents’ claims ended with Jones ordered to pay almost $50 million.
During that Texas trial, Jones — while on the stand — brought up his bankruptcy claims, which the judge directed him against. Any bankruptcy claims for the defendants who were on the case remained unresolved. Jones’s team also sought the transfer of the currently unfolding Connecticut damages trial to bankruptcy court, which a bankruptcy judge denied. Conspiracy theories Jones helped spread about the Sandy Hook shooting include the notion that family members of victims of the incident are actually acting, and relatedly, these family members have faced relentless harassment and even in-person confrontations with believers. One of the Texas plaintiffs outlined how a stranger showed up to her home on Christmas and began taking pictures. There has also been gunfire directed at the property of the other Texas plaintiff, he explained.
As for Jones’s debt, it’s also alleged via a late August bankruptcy court filing from Sandy Hook families that Jones funneled almost $62 million in business money towards himself and his family starting around the time litigation from the Sandy Hook families over these lies emerged, The New York Times summarizes. That obviously sounds like a tactic to keep money from potentially going towards financial damages.
