Federal bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez has lifted a temporary pause to defamation cases against far-right commentator Alex Jones that stem from lies he told and helped spread about the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
The pause was implemented after Jones recently filed for personal bankruptcy. The order Lopez delivered Monday had the support of legal teams for Jones, his company Free Speech Systems, and individuals who lost loved ones in the massacre and brought litigation, although it blocks the families from pursuing collection action covering the hundreds of millions they’re owed under previous orders from juries and judges in their respective cases, including a Texas judge who allowed punitive damages Jones is facing to remain above limits set in state law. That won’t be the end of it, with Jones’s bankruptcy proceedings continuing. Now, those involved in other litigation can more effectively handle other matters potentially looming in these defamation cases.
In personal bankruptcy filings Jones made earlier in December, he pointed to $1 billion to $10 billion in liabilities and $1 million to $10 million in assets, per the Associated Press — claims of financial standing that contrast with what a forensic economist shared during Texas proceedings. That expert pinned the combined net worth of Jones and Free Speech Systems at up to a full $270 million — which doesn’t cover the entirety of the some $1.5 billion he owes across two defamation cases in Texas and Connecticut, with a third likely soon kicking off court proceedings in Texas, but it’s a start. A lawyer involved with representing the families previously suggested at least those who he represented could settle in part for Jones ending his broadcasting run.
Those who brought the cases culminating in these large financial penalties for Jones faced years of harassment, reaching often extreme levels, from adherents of the conspiracy theory Jones helped propagate claiming the shooting was staged. Believers have repeatedly confronted these families in person, and in Connecticut, one father of a victim discussed a threat to dig up his late son’s grave.
Jones is also facing accusations questioning the legitimacy of tens of millions in debt allegedly held by Free Speech Systems to a company called PQPR Holdings, which — assuming no recent structural changes — Jones’s own father manages and which Jones himself and his parents own, per info outlined in The Washington Post. PQPR has been involved with procuring supplements Jones sells. He previously tied the creation of the company to liability concerns, and a lawyer for his media company blamed the sudden revelation of huge amounts of debt on mishandled accounting, although Free Speech Systems also filed for bankruptcy, and a lawyer for PQPR argued that debts in the category owed to the company be paid before those owed to the families who sued Jones. The conspiracy theorist also asked Lopez to raise his salary from Free Speech Systems to its past level of $1.3 million a year, but the judge indicated he’d deal with that request at a January hearing. He’s still getting $20,000 every two weeks.
