Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, facing a massive debt owed in defamation judgments for lies he spread about the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, told his Infowars listeners on Friday that he has no assets other than money he can make from selling nutritional supplements and continuing to broadcast.
The products “are worthless if I don’t promote them. Our listeners will never buy them from you if I’m gone, no matter how much they love them,” Jones said. “And the rest of the story is I will not sell out or be compromised to stay on the air here and be a puppet.”
Jones lashed out at various institutions — the FBI, the CIA, the Democratic Party and the news media — as he claimed he was being unfairly attacked, and was being shut down and silenced.
His comments come after he asked a judge for permission to convert his bankruptcy filing into a Chapter 7 liquidation so that he can sell off his assets to help pay for the $1.5 billion owed to the families of Sandy Hook victims who sued him.
Jones had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Texas in December 2022, which lawyers for the plaintiffs criticized as a move to try to avoid paying the debt. But a judge ruled last year that Jones, who had said in court documents he has about $9 million in personal assets, can’t use bankruptcy to wipe out the legal judgments against him.
Jones’ attorneys wrote in a court filing Wednesday that “there is no reasonable prospect of a successful reorganization” of his debts. Liquidation of his assets could mean Jones would have to sell his media company, Free Speech Systems, which is also seeking bankruptcy protection.
The plaintiffs also want the company to be liquidated, as they want to see how Jones can fulfill his financial obligations to them, they said in an emergency motion filed this week. A motion hearing was scheduled for next week to review the case.
Jones said Friday on his show that he does not want to work with the chief restructuring officer appointed by the bankruptcy court to oversee his company if that person remains during the liquidation process.
He also suggested that while Infowars may exist as it currently does for a few more weeks, he may “relaunch” through another organization.
Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, said their fight is far from over.
“Alex Jones has hurt so many people,” Mattei said in a statement. “The Connecticut families have fought for years to hold him responsible no matter the cost and at great personal peril. Their steadfast focus on meaningful accountability, and not just money, is what has now brought him to the brink of justice in the way that matters most.”
Jones had previously sought a bankruptcy settlement with the families, but that was rejected.
In the wake of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in which a gunman killed 20 children and six adults, Jones repeatedly suggested the massacre was a hoax. At his trial in Texas in 2022, he generally blamed “corporate media” for twisting his words and misportraying him, but did not specify how.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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