Sandy Hook lawyers tear up Alex Jones’ bankruptcy bid to dodge damages

Lawyers for sand hook parents who successfully sued donald trump ally Alex Jones as his relentless lies about the massacres blame him for now trying to use bankruptcy protection laws to avoid paying libel damages.

“Just two days before the start of jury selection in Connecticut, Mr. Jones has once again fled like a coward to bankruptcy court in a transparent attempt to delay confrontation with the families he has spent years hurting,” Chris Matei, an attorney for the families, said in a statement.

The far-right podcaster was convicted of defamation last year for repeatedly insisting that the 20 first graders (and six adults) killed in a mass shooting at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2018 — and their devastated parents — were acting within the framework of a fake anti-gun stunt staged by the US government.

In addition to this horrific tragedy, the families were then forced to deal with harassment and death threats from raging Jones fans.

A trial to determine damages began last week in a libel case in Texas, where Infowars is located, and another begins this week in Connecticut. Last Friday, Jones suddenly declared bankruptcy for the parent company of Infowars. He signed a Chapter 11 petition to protect Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems LLC, his co-defamant in the two defamation cases.

Jones tried – and dropped — a similar scheme earlier this year when he declared bankruptcy for Infowars and the companies holding trademark and web domain rights in an attempt to force a restrictive monetary settlement with the Sandy Hook families.

Infowars would have raises 50 million dollars a year sell dietary supplements, conspiracy videos and books, and bulletproof vests.

Free Speech Systems on Friday sought court permission to use its money to pay its 58 employees to continue producing “The Alex Jones Show” at its studios in Austin, Texas, and to continue selling the dietary supplements that generate most of the company’s income.

Cordt Akers, an attorney for the Texas plaintiffs suing Jones, told the Wall Street Journal that the “obviously planned” bankruptcy filing was also “fake like when he tried to play this same game three months ago.”

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The Sandy Hook families have no intention of giving up the fight.

“These families have infinite patience and remain determined to hold Mr Jones accountable in a Connecticut court,” Matei noted.

The testimonies regarding Jones’ ruthless lies about the Sandy Hook tragedy have been devastating.

A former employee of Infowars and Alex Jones said he was mocked after he repeatedly pleaded with staff to stop publishing lies about the school shooting.

Rob Jacobson told the jury in videotaped deposition at the Austin hearing on Friday that he felt ” partner in crime “ even though he was not directly involved in the lies. He said he told writers and outlet staff that they were violating journalistic ethics.

“When [Sandy Hook] would come on screen, I would make it a point to go to the writers and explain to them as clearly as possible… what those ethics are and why they violate them and what could be the damage“, said Jacobson.

He said the response was “laughs and jokes”.

Jones, who is linked to extremist groups behind the seizure of the Capitol on Jan. 6 last year, was to the attention of investigators for his role in the planning of the events preceding the violence.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

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