CNN
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Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones filed for personal bankruptcy a year ago after being ordered to pay more than a billion dollars to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting for defamation. Payable.
In a filing Friday in Texas bankruptcy court, Jones proposed that Sandy Hook families be allowed to accept a settlement that guarantees them at least $5.5 million a year for 10 years, with the possibility of more depending on Jones’ income. Immigrant families will receive 70% of the money Jones raises by selling personal property that is not exempt from bankruptcy law. In exchange, they will waive all legal claims against Jones or related parties.
Jones filed a motion Personal bankruptcy In December 2022 after he was ordered to pay Damages incurred when he lost two civil suits over false claims about an elementary school massacre. His company Free Speech Systems, which operates his Infowars website, A bankruptcy petition was filed Last July.
“This is the first time Jones has shared how he will be held accountable for the harm this bankruptcy plan has caused families,” said Jarrod P., an attorney for some of the Sandy Hook families. Martin said.
“Our team is carefully reviewing the proposal and will share our views on it in due course,” Martin told CNN via email.
CNN reached out to Jones’ attorneys Saturday for comment. The court set a Friday deadline for all parties to propose a plan to settle Jones’ debts.
Friday’s filing came a day after the 11th anniversary Attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School In Newtown, Connecticut, 20 first-graders and six adults were killed.
Jones unsubstantiatedly repeated the 2012 mass shooting and that families and first responders were “crisis actors.”
The lies spawned several lawsuits and a 2022 trial of lawsuits filed in Connecticut. Throughout the trial, family members described in stark terms how the lies fueled relentless harassment against them and compounded the emotional agony of losing their loved ones.
In earlier filings, attorneys for the families said Jones made no effort to rein in his own spending to pay after winning. A civil defamation case against him. “He continues to enjoy his lavish lifestyle and, based on his monthly operating statements, has spent approximately $900,000 since initiating this case,” the Sandy Hook families said.
A federal bankruptcy judge ruled in October Jones is still legally obligated to pay most of what the Sandy Hook families won in court, despite his bankruptcy filing.
Last month, the Sandy Hook families said in court filings that they could pay the Jones families between at least $8.5 million and more than $9 million of Jones’ annual income and other assets not exempt from bankruptcy protection. Families will also have a rightful role in free speech organizations. If Jones completes the terms of their proposal for 10 years, he will regain full ownership of his company and be “absolved of all liability,” according to the plan.
If Jones doesn’t accept that proposal, they will seek a full liquidation of any assets not protected by bankruptcy law, leaving him “a lifetime of litigation and enforcement action,” the families’ attorneys said.
A judge’s hearing to consider the latest proposal is set for late February.
Jones was ordered to pay more than $1.1 billion Connecticut case Family members of the eight shooting victims and one first responder were brought. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Texas He ruled in favor of the familiesThey were awarded more than $322.5 million in common law punitive damages.
CNN’s Dejania Oliver, Nicki Brown, Lauren del Valle and Ray Sanchez contributed to this report.
Correction: An earlier version of this story gave the wrong month of the federal judge’s ruling in the bankruptcy proceedings. The verdict was handed down in October.
