Friday, June 14, 2024 10:30PMA federal judge on Friday ordered the liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' personal assets but was still deciding on his company's separate bankruptcy case, leaving the future of his Infowars media platform uncertain as he owes $1.5 billion for his false claims that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
A liquidation of Free Speech Systems would mean Jones loses control of the company, and its assets would be sold off. He would lose the Infowars studios in Austin and its equipment, the company's social media accounts, and all copyrights. A bankruptcy trustee would oversee the company and liquidation. The Sandy Hook families also want Jones to lose his personal social media accounts, but he opposes that.
"This is probably the end of Infowars here very, very soon. If not today, in the next few weeks or months," Jones told reporters before Friday's hearing. "But it's just the beginning of my fight against tyranny." Jones and Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022, when relatives of many victims of the 2012 school shooting that killed 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, won lawsuit judgments of more than $1.4 billion in Connecticut and $49 million in Texas.
Jones and Free Speech Systems initially filed for bankruptcy reorganization protection that would have allowed him to run Infowars while paying the families with revenues from his show. But the two sides couldn't agree on a final plan, and Jones recently filed for permission to switch his personal bankruptcy from a reorganization to a liquidation.
If Free Speech Systems' case is dismissed, the company could return to the same position it was in after the $1.5 billion was awarded in the lawsuits. Efforts to collect the damages would go back to state courts in Texas and Connecticut. That could give Infowars an extended lifeline.