InfoWars, a website founded by conspiracy theorist and radio personality Alex Jones, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from continued litigation connected to the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
The 2012 tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, left twenty children and six school educators dead. Families of the victims filed defamation lawsuits against Jones, who claimed that the shooting was a hoax.
Sunday’s filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas delays further litigation and allows Jones’ company to continue operating. IW Health and Prison Planet TV, two other enterprises linked to Jones, also filed for bankruptcy protection.
Infowars claimed to have up to forty-nine creditors, $50,000 in estimated assets, and $10 million in estimated liabilities in court documents. IW Health and Prison Planet TV each indicated they had up to forty-nine creditors, with IW Health claiming up to $1 million in assets and Prison Planet TV claiming up to $50,000.
During his online broadcast on April 18, Jones urged listeners to donate to Infowars or perhaps buy a shirt or supplements in the wake of a string of legal costs.
“We’re already totally maxed out, and I’m already expending my backup capital,” said Jones. “And I’m very happy to do that, I’m honored to do that, but once it runs out, that’ll be it; we’ll have to start laying off people and cutting stuff.”
InfoWars is connected to multiple defamation lawsuits filed by family members of the victims in both Texas and Connecticut.
According to the lawsuits, the radio personality’s followers allegedly harassed and threatened the cases’ plaintiffs after Jones promoted the conspiracy theory that crisis actors staged the shooting so the federal government could confiscate or regulate firearms. Over the course of many years, Jones and Infowars made claims to this effect on broadcasts and in articles published on his website.
Jones has since rescinded his claims in a sworn declaration, saying he now believes the shootings did take place.
“[I] almost had like a form of psychosis back in the past where I basically thought everything was staged, even though I’m now learning a lot of times things aren’t staged,” he claimed.
Jones lost two defamation lawsuits filed by victims’ families in Texas last September because he neglected to disclose sought information to the court. In November 2021, a Connecticut judge determined that he was liable by default because he failed to grant papers demanded by the courts, including financial data, in a lawsuit brought by the families of eight victims slain in the massacre.
Last month, Jones was fined $75,000 after failing to appear at a deposition connected to another lawsuit in Connecticut. However, the fine was rescinded last week after Jones eventually made an appearance.
Jones has been found liable in two different cases, one in Texas and the other in Connecticut. Damages have yet to be determined for either suit. Still, court documents show that an initial payment of $725,000 was made into a bankruptcy trust overseen by two retired judges, with the second payment of $2 million expected at a later date.
Christopher Mattei, who represents all of the families in Connecticut, dismissed the bankruptcy filing as an act of desperation by Jones and his legal team.
“Alex Jones is just delaying the inevitable: a public trial in which he will be held accountable for his profit-driven campaign of lies against the Sandy Hook families who have brought this lawsuit,” Mattei said.
Jones had made a settlement offer of $120,000 last month to each of the Connecticut plaintiffs, a move that was quickly rejected.