DECEMBER 11, 2024:
UNDATED (AP)- A federal judge in Texas has rejected the auction sale of Alex Jones’ Infowars to The Onion satirical news outlet. The judge criticized the bidding process as flawed as well as the amount of money that families of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting stood to receive. The decision late Tuesday night (Dec. 10, 2024) is a victory for Jones, whose conspiracy theory platform was put up for sale as part of his bankruptcy case. The bankruptcy case was in the wake of the nearly $1.5 billion that courts have ordered him to pay over falsely calling one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history a hoax. Families of the Sandy Hook victims had backed The Onion’s bid.
DECEMBER 10, 2024:
UNDATED (AP)- The Onion’s bid to buy conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars is back in a Texas courtroom. A bankruptcy judge scrutinizing the bid was expected to hear a second day of testimony Tuesday (Dec. 10, 2024). It’s not clear how quickly U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston will decide whether to approve the sale. The Onion wants to turn Infowars’ website and social media accounts into parodies. It offered $1.75 million for Infowars’ assets in the auction. A trustee who oversaw the auction is expected to testify Tuesday. Jones did not attend the start of the key hearing and instead continued to broadcast from his studios in Austin.
NOVEMBER 14, 2024:
UNDATED (AP)- Families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims say the satirical news publication The Onion won the bidding for Alex Jones’ UNDATED (AP)- Infowars at a bankruptcy auction. They made the announcement Thursday. Jones owes them more than $1 billion in defamation judgments for calling the 2012 massacre a hoax. The sale price was not immediately disclosed. The Onion says its “exclusive launch advertiser” will be the gun violence prevention organization Everytown for Gun Safety. Jones said on social media that he planned to challenge the sale in court. He broadcast live from the Infowars studio Thursday morning and appeared distraught, putting his head in his hand at his desk.
NOVEMBER 13, 2024:
UNDATED (AP)- It’s auction day for Alex Jones’ Infowars. The Infowars studio and most other assets of the conspiracy theorist’s company were expected to be sold off Wednesday (Nov. 13, 2024). The proceeds will help pay the nearly $1.5 billion in defamation lawsuit judgments Jones owes families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut for calling the massacre a hoax. Jones says Infowars could be shut down if opponents win the bidding. Sealed bids were scheduled to be opened Wednesday morning. There was no immediate announcement of the results. Jones says he has set up a new studio, websites and social media accounts just in case.
NOVEMBER 28, 2023:
UNDATED (AP)- Families of children and educators killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have made an offer to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay only a fraction of the $1.5 billion in legal judgments they won against him. Lawyers for the families said in a recent filing in Jones’ bankruptcy case that they would accept at least $85 million over 10 years. The families were awarded the $1.5 billion in lawsuits against Jones for his calling the 2012 Connecticut school shooting a hoax and for the threats and harassment they endured from Jones’ followers. Jones’ bankruptcy lawyer said in court Monday that the $85 million settlement offer was too high.
SEPTEMBER 15, 2023:
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Lawyers for several families of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting are criticizing Alex Jones’ personal spending as they seek nearly $1.5 billion they won in lawsuits against the Infowars host. Court filings by Jones in his bankruptcy case in Texas show the conspiracy theorist who called the 2012 shooting a hoax dished out more than $93,000 in July 2023. That includes $15,000 to his wife, $7,900 for housekeeping and more than $6,300 for meals and entertainment. The families’ lawyers said in a recent court filing that they will seek court orders to control Jones’ spending if he doesn’t himself. Jones denies financial wrongdoing but acknowledges an affinity for eating out.
DECEMBER 2, 2022:
HOUSTON (AP) — Infowars host Alex Jones has filed for personal bankruptcy protection in Texas as he faces nearly $1.5 billion in court judgments over conspiracy theories he spread about the Sandy Hook school massacre. Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in bankruptcy court in Houston on Friday (Dec. 2, 2022). His filing lists $1 billion to $10 billion in liabilities. The bankruptcy filing comes as Jones faces court orders to pay nearly $1.5 billion in damages to relatives of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting for calling the massacre a hoax. Jones has laughed at the awards, saying he has less than $2 million to his name and won’t be able to pay such high amounts.
NOVEMBER 4, 2022:
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is facing the possibility of having billions more dollars added onto the amount he owes relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The punitive damages phase of his Connecticut trial is set to begin Friday (Nov. 4, 2022). A jury last month ordered Jones and his media company to pay nearly $1 billion in compensatory damages to the Sandy Hook families for repeatedly telling his audience of millions the 2012 shooting that killed 20 first graders and six educators was a hoax. A judge will determine punitive damages after hearings set for Friday and Monday.
OCTOBER 24, 2022:
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has asked a Connecticut judge to throw out a nearly $1 billion verdict against him and order a new trial in a lawsuit by Sandy Hook families over Jones’ lies that the 2012 Newtown school shooting was a hoax. The verdict came this month in a lawsuit by relatives of eight children and adults killed in the shooting who testified they were harassed and threatened because of the hoax conspiracy. Jones asked for a new trial Friday (Oct. 21, 2022), calling the trial in Connecticut unfair and “a substantial miscarriage of justice.” A lawyer for the Sandy Hook families says they will oppose Jones’ request. Twenty children and six educators died in the shooting.
OCTOBER 17, 2022:
NEW YORK (AP) — The award of nearly $1 billion to parents of Sandy Hook shooting victims to compensate for harmful lies spread by fabulist Alex Jones isn’t likely to do much to curb disinformation, experts say. Conspiracy theories have roots too deep in American history and, as Jones proved, there’s a lot of money to be made now in spreading them. Because the ruling involved private citizens and not public figures, many purveyors of disinformation will be able to get around it. Media experts are next looking to a potential trial or settlement in the lawsuit by the Dominion voting system against Fox News for spreading disinformation about the 2020 election.
OCTOBER 12, 2022:
WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) — Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been ordered by a Connecticut jury to pay $965 million to people who suffered from his false claim that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax. The verdict is the second big judgment against the Infowars host for claiming the massacre was staged. It came in a lawsuit filed by the relatives of eight victims. An FBI agent who responded to the shooting was also a plaintiff. Jones now believes the shooting was real, but he says he had a right to publicly question whether it happened. A Texas jury in August 2022 ordered Jones to pay $50 million to the parents of another slain child.
AUGUST 2022:
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A psychiatrist says that the parents of a Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victim live with a complex form of post-traumatic stress disorder and a constant fear that followers of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones will kill them. Roy Lubit, a forensic psychiatrist hired by plaintiffs Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis to review the trauma they’ve faced, testified Monday at Jones’ defamation trial in Austin that the “overwhelming cause” of their ongoing trauma is Jones’ claims that the 2012 massacre in which six educators and 20 students, including their son Jesse, were killed was a hoax or faked. The trial is to determine how much Jones owes the parents for defaming them. They are seeking at least $150 million.
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