A federal judge dealing specifically with bankruptcy matters involving far-right commentator Alex Jones has ruled against the prospect of using legal protections associated with bankruptcy, which Jones has claimed, to evade financial penalties imposed upon him after defamation lawsuits from targets of a major conspiracy theory.
Those who sued Jones include family members of victims in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. After the incident, the never remotely of-this-planet conspiracy theory began to spread that the shooting was staged with underlying purposes like providing a pretext for gun control. Believers began confronting, both online and in-person, families of victims, posing sometimes serious physical threats. Just imagine the state of affairs that would mean someone showing up unannounced to a family’s personal residence at Christmas and taking pictures outside — which is something that evidently occurred. Across several lawsuits, individuals affected by Jones’ lies were awarded a total of some $1.5 billion.
They haven’t gotten anything yet. Lopez concluded, however, that the bankruptcy protections that Jones was seeking do not cancel out the earlier conclusions of “willful and malicious” actions on his part. NBC had a statement from a lawyer for the families. “The families are pleased with the Court’s ruling that Jones’s malicious conduct will find no safe harbor in the bankruptcy court,” Christopher Mattei said. Mattei also clearly indicated that the families would stay on the case of actually getting financial compensation from Jones after the large penalties in court.
Jones remains active, and he maintains ties to figures on the far-right like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who recently appeared with him for an interview. Though he’s made bankruptcy claims, disclosures he filed showed $93,000 in personal spending in July. There have also been serious questions throughout the defamation challenges and bankruptcy claims about whether Jones had moved money to other entities and individuals close to him in a manner that might arbitrarily shield the funds from going towards the financial penalties he has accumulated.
