Sandy Hook Families Ask Judge To Liquidate Alex Jones’ Media Company After Feds Attempt To Shut Down Infowars
Families of those killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting asked a judge to liquidate Alex Jones’ media company, including Infowars, immediately after the legendary talk show host announced the federal government is orchestrating a forceful takeover of his broadcasting studios.
Jones previously asked the judge to provide time to reorganize his business as the Sandy Hook families demanded the collection of $1.5 billion they were awarded in their outlandish verdicts against him.
On Sunday, lawyers for families filed an emergency motion in Bankruptcy Court in Houston, doubling down on the concerted effort to shut down Infowars.
Free Speech Systems, Alex Jones’ parent company, has “no prospect” of developing a reorganization plan that would be approved by the court and has “failed to demonstrate any hope of beginning to satisfy” their legal claims, attorneys for the Sandy Hook families wrote.
A hearing in Free Speech Systems’ bankruptcy case was slated for Monday to address the plaintiff’s dispute over the company’s finances.
Jones warned on a live emergency broadcast on Saturday that federal agents could put locks on the studio’s doors and liquidate all broadcasting assets amid the families’ bankruptcy court filings.
The Infowars host said he even spent the night in his studio and is prepared to involve local law enforcement to prevent what he described as an unlawful raid on his property.
In a video posted Friday with the caption, “BREAKING! INFOWARS May Be Shutdown in 48 Hours,” Jones said, “The deep state thinks they’re taking down Trump. And hours after they have their false conviction, they’re making their move to shut down InfoWars right now.”
Jones has been vocal about the attacks on his platform over the past six years, including de-platforming, deep state interference, and rigged trials. Despite these challenges, InfoWars has managed to survive due to overwhelming public support. However, Jones warns that this latest assault could be the final blow.
“I learned at 4:00 PM today, just a few hours ago, that Infowars was going to be shut and closed tonight. We have hired security here, a private contractor. They were told, ‘Get ready to close the doors, change the locks, and InfoWars is going to be shut down,'” Jones said Friday.
“I learned about this and said, ‘Well, I’m going to go expose this. I’m going to talk about this. This is all having the bankruptcy. It’s not the court doing it.’ I’ll reveal who’s behind it soon. And so I made some phone calls and did some things. They said, ‘Okay, we’ll back off for now if you do X, Y, and Z.’ I don’t believe anything I’m being told. So when I tell you that this could be the last show I ever do from Infowars, 50% chance. There’s a 50% chance this has what’s happening right now,” he added.
Liquidation would require Jones to surrender his company, its assets and most of what he owns to his creditors, including the Sandy Hook families.
His home and personal belongings would be exempt from bankruptcy liquidation.
The court has not yet ruled on liquidation stipulations in Jones' cases.
On Dec. 14, 2012 a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut resulted in the death of 20 children and six staffers. Adam Lanza killed the children at Sandy Hook school. The Lanza estate paid the Sandy Hook families $1.5 million total in its lawsuit.
Jones surmised at the time on-air that the US government may have falsified or concealed information about the shooting and speculated the massacre could have been staged to serve as a pretext or gun control.
Many of the families of the Sandy Hook victims sued Jones and won the two trials in Connecticut and Texas. The relatives contend they were traumatized by Jones’ remarks and that his fans harassed and threatened them with death threats for years.
Jones' defense was his right to free speech and that he was not responsible for the harassment. He lost.
Jones “in many instances never mentioned the names of many of the plaintiffs who sued him,” Infowars reports. “In the second highest payout amount to the plaintiffs, the jury awarded FBI agent William Aldenberg – who Jones never mentioned by name – $90 million in compensatory damages, despite the fact he had no connection to any children or staff who died in the mass shooting.”
Last year, Jones resigned to filing for bankruptcy for himself and Free Speech Systems after a Connecticut jury ordered him to pay $965 million in damages to 15 relatives of the victims and an additional $473 million to the judgment in attorney’s fees for spreading “misinformation.”
In October, Texas U.S. District Judge Christopher Lopez ruled Jones could not use bankruptcy protections to avoid paying money to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting.
As Daily Mail reports:
If the cases are withdrawn, it would put Jones back in the same position he was in after the $1.5 billion was awarded in the lawsuits and it would send efforts to collect the damages back to the state courts where the verdicts were reached.
...
According to the most recent financial statements filed in the bankruptcy court, Jones personally has about $9 million in assets including his $2.6 million Austin-area home and other real estate. He also listed his living expenses at about $69,000 for April alone, including about $16,500 for expenses on his home including maintenance, housekeeping and insurance.
Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, which employs 44 people, had nearly $4 million in cash on hand at the end of April. The business made nearly $3.2 million in April, including from selling the dietary supplements, clothing and other items that Jones promotes on his show, while listing $1.9 million in expenses.
Jones and the Sandy Hook families have offered different proposals to settle the $1.5 billion he owes them. Last year, Free Speech Systems filed a plan that would leave $7 million to $10 million a year to pay off creditors.
The families later countered with their own proposal: either liquidate Jones’ estate and give the proceeds to creditors, or pay them at least $8.5 million a year for 10 years — plus 50 percent of any income over $9 million per year.
Fascists are in a war to make obsolete all dissenting voices. But, don't worry. The Republicans in Congress will write a nasty letter Monday morning.
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