Judge approves auctions to liquidate Alex Jones’ Infow…

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars media platform and assets are set to be auctioned off piece by piece this fall to help pay off the more than $1 billion he owes to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The decision is expected to be approved by a federal judge.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston said during a court hearing Tuesday that he would approve the auctions, which begin in November, but he said he must first amend an earlier order to clarify that the trustee overseeing Jones’ personal bankruptcy proceedings controls all assets of Infowars parent company Free Speech Systems, which is wholly owned by Jones.

Despite the looming loss of his company, Jones promises to continue his talk shows in other ways, possibly with a new website and his personal social media accounts. He has also suggested that Infowars’ assets could be purchased by his supporters, allowing him to continue hosting his show as an employee under the Infowars brand in its hometown of Austin, Texas.

“It’s very clear that the assets of Free Speech Systems, the website, the equipment, the shopping cart and all that can be sold,” Jones said on a recent show. “And they know full well that there are a lot of patriotic buyers, and then the operation can quietly continue.”

Jones and his company filed for bankruptcy in 2022 – the same year Sandy Hook families won nearly $1.5 billion in defamation and emotional distress lawsuits against Jones for repeatedly calling the 2012 school shooting a hoax staged by “crisis actors” to push for more gun control laws. The shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, killed 20 first-graders and six teachers.

In two civil lawsuits in Texas and Connecticut, parents and children of many of the victims testified they were traumatized by Jones’ hoaxes and the actions of his followers. They said they were harassed and threatened by Jones’ followers, some of whom personally confronted the grieving families, saying the shooting never happened and their children never existed. One parent said someone threatened to dig up his dead son’s grave.

Jones is appealing the civil jury verdicts, citing free speech rights and questioning whether the families have shown any connection between his comments and the people who harassed and threatened the relatives. He has since acknowledged that the shooting took place.

In June, Lopez converted Jones’ personal bankruptcy case into a liquidation, meaning many of his assets will be sold to pay creditors, except for his primary residence and other exempt assets. That same day, Lopez also dismissed Free Speech Systems’ bankruptcy case after Jones and the families could not agree on a final plan.

The sell-off resolution, which Lopez will have to approve, calls for Infowars’ intellectual property to be auctioned off on November 13, including trademarks, copyrighted material, social media accounts and websites. Jones’ personal social media sites, including his account on social media platform X, which has 2.8 million followers, would not be affected.

However, the trustee overseeing Jones’ bankruptcy proceedings, Christopher Murray, said Tuesday that he may soon seek court permission to liquidate Jones’ personal social media accounts and other intellectual property as well – something Jones’ lawyers have objected to. That issue could become another court battle in the bankruptcy case. Murray is also expected to sell many of Jones’ personal assets.

The Sandy Hook families, who won the lawsuit in Connecticut, want Jones to lose his personal social media accounts. Their lawyers also argue that the families should receive a portion of Jones’ future earnings to pay off his more than $1 billion debt.

Christopher Mattei, an attorney for the Sandy Hook families in the Connecticut litigation, said the judge’s signing of the auction order was “a significant step forward” in the family’s efforts to make Jones pay for his false reports.

“Alex Jones will no longer own or control the company he built,” Mattei said in a statement Tuesday. “This brings the families closer to their goal of holding him accountable for the harm he caused.”

The rest of Infowars’ assets, including computers, video cameras and other studio equipment, are scheduled to be sold at another auction on December 10.

Jones has made millions of dollars over the years selling nutritional supplements, clothing, survival gear, books and other items that he promotes on his shows, which air on the Internet and dozens of radio stations. It’s unclear how much money would be raised from the sale of Infowars and Jones’ assets, and how much money the Sandy Hook families would get.

Jones has a personal net worth of about $9 million, according to court documents. Free Speech Systems has about $6 million in cash and about $1.2 million in inventory, according to previous court testimony.

Lawyers, financial experts and others who worked on Jones’ bankruptcy cases, accumulating millions of dollars in fees and expenses, are expected to be paid first.

One remaining legal dispute in the bankruptcy case is whether Free Speech Systems owes more than $50 million to another company owned by Jones, PQPR Holdings Limited. Free Speech Systems buys nutritional supplements from PQPR to sell on the Infowars website. PQPR said it has not received money for many of the supplements and has had liens filed. Sandy Hook’s lawyers claim the debts are bogus.

If the debts are found to be legitimate, this could result in a reduction in the amounts that the Sandy Hook families ultimately receive from the liquidation.