Sandy Hook families drop Alex Jones companies in bankruptcy from lawsuit
NEWTOWN – An FBI agent and eight Sandy Hook families that won a defamation lawsuit against Alex Jones in Connecticut have dropped three Jones companies now in bankruptcy from their lawsuit and have asked a federal judge to return their case to trial court.
The families’ hope is that by dropping three former businesses controlled by Jones that sought bankruptcy protection, a federal bankruptcy judge in Bridgeport will return their case to state court, where a trial to award defamation damages was scheduled to begin in August.
Both Jones and his Free Speech Systems did not file for bankruptcy, but his defamation cases here and in Texas have been removed from state courts while a federal bankruptcy judge in Texas weighs the three bankruptcy cases.
“These cases were removed to this (bankruptcy) court to serve one purpose and one purpose only: delay,” wrote the families’ attorneys to federal bankruptcy Judge Julie Manning on Monday. “Every day that these cases are frozen on the Connecticut Superior Court docket is a day that Alex Jones avoids accountability and delays trial.”
The parents of two boys slain in the Sandy Hook massacre who won two defamation cases against Jones in Texas followed a similar strategy.
Meanwhile on Friday, a federal bankruptcy judge in Texas gave the Sandy Hook families awaiting defamation damages trials here and in and Texas part of what they wanted by agreeing to hear their motions first to dismiss Alex Jones’ bankruptcies as “bad faith” filings.
But the judge also gave Jones’ attorneys part of what they wanted - enough breathing room to prepare an unhurried defense of their plan to pay the Sandy Hook families defamation damages Jones owes without putting his conspiracy platform Infowars out of business.
“I get it that no one likes the debtors, but they have a right to defend themselves just like anyone who comes before me.” Judge Christopher Lopez told a crowd of 60 attorneys and observers during a livestreamed conference in Southern Texas Bankruptcy Court.