Sandy Hook families tell judge they doubt Jones’ bankruptcy because his ‘trade is lies’
HOUSTON — A federal judge overseeing Alex Jones’ personal bankruptcy to settle a $1.5 billion debt to Sandy Hook families he defamed asked why the embattled Infowars owner wasn’t in court Wednesday to help the judge understand his plight.
Federal Judge Christopher Lopez interrupted Jones’ lead bankruptcy attorney one minute into her opening statement about how Jones wants to “run this case quickly” through the Chapter 11 process.
“Is Mr. Jones available?” Lopez interrupted.
“He is not,” responded Christina Stephenson, a Dallas attorney. “He had a family commitment he has to attend.”
After Lopez heard an attorney representing the Sandy Hook families detail how skeptical they were about getting an honest accounting of Jones’ financial worth, Lopez re
turned to the subject of Jones’ absence.
“At some point I would like to see Mr. Jones,” said Lopez, during a midafternoon hearing that was conducted in person and via videoconference. “I understand today wasn’t the day, but judges like to ask questions.”
Lopez is referring to Jones’ third and most consequential bankruptcy filing this year, where the Chapter 11 process will determine whether Jones is personally worth no more than $12 million, as his latest bankruptcy filing claims, or whether his worth is closer to the $270 million an expert testified to at his first defamation trial in August in Texas.
At stake is not only how much Jones will pay of the $49.2 million a Texas jury awarded the parents of slain Sandy Hook boy and how much Jones will pay of the combined $1.4 billion a jury and judge awarded eight Sandy Hook families in Connecticut, but whether Jones will remain a leading conspiracy theory merchandiser.
“It is practically and functionally impossible for a human being who has less than $12 million in
assets, who makes less than $2 million a year from the (parent company Free Speech Systems) business, to pay over $1.5 billion in debt,” reads a bankruptcy status report submitted to the court by Stephenson. “So, while Jones comes to this court in good faith and wants to reach an amicable resolution between all the parties, it is imperative that all parties do the same.”
Jones’ status report goes on to reveal that “Jones’s intention is to continue his broadcasts and The Alex Jones Show,” and “Any argument that Jones must give up his public life, or discontinue public discourse is contrary to supporting his ability to fund a plan and pay creditors, leaving Jones with limited options.”
Jones’ status report claims trial expenses in Texas and Connecticut have cost Jones $13 million, that his personal finances are so disorganized that he’s had to hire financial advisors to sort everything out, that he personally gave his parent company, Free Speech Systems, $10 million in 2022 to keep it afloat, and that his “$1.3 million salary has gone (mostly) unpaid for 2022.”
Manhattan attorney David Zensky, who is representing the Sandy Hook families from the Texas and
Connecticut cases in bankruptcy court, said on Wednesday that justice for the families hinged on full disclosure of Jones’ finances.
“We are here today because Mr. Jones’ stock and trade is lies, not truth,” Zensky told the judge. “We will hope with cautious optimism that ( Jones) understands his obligations of disclosure … and all of his transactions and transfers will be a key focus of the Sandy Hook families.”
Zensky said Jones’ followers “have donated more than $10 million in response to the verdicts” and that money needed to be safeguarded, adding that gifts and other transfers
Jones may have made “are going to have to be brought back into the estate.”
There was no immediate word on Wednesday whether Jones would ask the bankruptcy court to lift its “stay” on all lower court action in Texas and Connecticut to permit appeals of the jury verdicts to be heard.
The next bankruptcy court date was set for Dec. 16, when Lopez will hear arguments about consolidating the bankruptcy case for Jones parent company, FSS, which was filed earlier this year.