Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, facing a massive debt owed in defamation judgments for lies he spread about the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, told his Infowars listeners Friday that he had no assets other than the money he could earn selling nutritional supplements and continuing to broadcast.
Products “are worthless if I don’t promote them.” Our listeners will never buy them from you if I leave, no matter how much they love them,” Jones said. “And the rest of the story is I will not sell out and be compromised to stay on the air here and be a puppet.”
Jones attacked various institutions – the FBI, the CIA, the Democratic Party and the media – claiming he was being unfairly attacked, shut down and silenced.
His comments come after he asked a judge for permission to convert his bankruptcy filing to Chapter 7 liquidation so he can sell off his assets to help pay the $1.5 billion owed to the families of Sandy Hook victims who sued him.
Jones had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas in December 2022, which plaintiffs’ attorneys criticized as a move to avoid paying the debt. But a judge ruled last year that Jones, who said in court papers that he owned about $9 million in personal property, could not use bankruptcy to overturn court judgments against him.
Jones’ lawyers wrote in a court filing Wednesday that “there is no reasonable prospect of a successful reorganization” of his debts. Liquidating his assets could mean Jones would have to sell his media company, Free Speech Systems, which is also seeking bankruptcy protection.
The plaintiffs also want the company liquidated because they want to see how Jones can meet its financial obligations to them, they said in an emergency motion filed this week. A motion hearing was scheduled for next week to review the case.
Jones said on his show Friday that he did not want to work with the restructuring manager appointed by the bankruptcy court to oversee his company if that person remained during the liquidation process.
He also suggested that while Infowars could exist as it currently does for a few more weeks, it could be “relaunched” through another organization.
Christopher Mattei, attorney for the Sandy Hook families, said their fight is far from over.
“Alex Jones hurt so many people,” Mattei said in a statement. “Connecticut residents have fought for years to hold their families accountable, no matter the cost and risking their lives. It was their constant focus on meaningful accountability, not just money, that brought him to the brink of justice in the way that matters most.
Jones had previously requested a bankruptcy settlement with the families, but his request was denied.
Following the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in which a gunman killed 20 children and six adults, Jones repeatedly suggested the massacre was a hoax. At his trial in Texas in 2022, he generally accused the “corporate media” of distorting and misrepresenting him, but did not specify how.