Bankruptcy court trustee plans to shut down Alex Jones' Infowars, liquidate assets
Families of the victims also sought to take over Jones’s social media accounts.
(The Hill) - The trustee in charge of Alex Jones’s bankruptcy proceedings said Monday that he will move to shut down the Infowars media site and liquidate Jones’s business assets as he attempts to repay the families of Sandy Hook school shooting victims.
Court-appointed trustee Christopher Murray said in an “emergency” motion that he will “conduct an orderly wind-down” of Infowars and sell off its assets.
The announcement comes weeks after a federal judge in Texas ruled to liquidate Jones’s personal assets. The judge did not determine the fate of Infowars at the time.
The conservative media host used the platform to repeatedly call the 2012 shooting that killed 20 first-graders and six educators in Newtown, Conn., a hoax, resulting in a nearly $1.5 billion judgment against him that forced Jones to declare bankruptcy.
Families of the victims also sought to take over Jones’s social media accounts.
Jones has continued to broadcast on Infowars amidst the bankruptcy proceedings, but has said that he expects the platform to be shut down in the coming months. He has pledged to continue his show on another platform or as an employee under potential new ownership, though specifics on the plan are unknown.
“This is probably the end of Infowars here very, very soon. If not today, in the next few weeks or months,” Jones told reporters outside court before a hearing earlier this month, The Associated Press reported. “But it’s just the beginning of my fight against tyranny.”
Murray also asked Judge Christopher Lopez to pause efforts from Texas victims’ families to collect funds from Jones during the sale process, arguing they would interfere in the process. Proceeds from asset sales would be returned to the families.
Jones lost two suits related to the Sandy Hook shooting, one $50 million judgment from a Texas family and a $1.4 billion judgment from 20 Connecticut families.
Referring to the Texas family’s collection efforts, Murray said in the Sunday court filing that, “The specter of a pell-mell seizure of [Infowars’s] assets, including its cash, threatens to throw the business into chaos, potentially stopping it in its tracks, to the detriment” of his duties in Jones’ personal bankruptcy case.
“The Trustee seeks this Court’s intervention to prevent a value-destructive money grab and allow an orderly process to take its course,” Murray said.
An attorney representing the Connecticut families involved in the suit said they support Murray’s efforts, and were “disappointed” by the Texas family’s attempts to recover funds separately.
“This is precisely the unfortunate situation that the Connecticut (lawsuit) families hoped to avoid,” attorney Christopher Mattei told AP.
The families have not yet received any funds from Jones over the judgments and appear unlikely to receive any significant portion of the sizable penalties.
Jones has estimated in court records that he has less than $12 million in assets, meaning he will carry an enormous legal debt even after the media platform and his other assets are sold.