Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is proposing to pay pennies on the greenback—simply 4%—of the $1.4 billion owed to the Sandy Hook households who efficiently sued him for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional misery after he repeatedly claimed the 2012 Newtown faculty bloodbath was a hoax utilizing “disaster actors” to spice up gun management laws.
The proposal, filed Friday night time in a Houston chapter court docket, would have Jones pay $55 million over ten years. It got here only a day after the eleventh anniversary of the Connecticut mass capturing, which took the lives of 20 first-graders and 6 educators.
The households filed a competing fee plan in court docket, looking for to liquidate all of Jones’ belongings and distribute them among the many households. While Jones’ plan would permit him to be launched of his debt after a decade, the household’s plan wouldn’t, successfully guaranteeing that Jones must proceed to pay out elements of the judgment for the remainder of his life.
Jones declared chapter in late 2022, citing the extent of the damages, however a decide dominated in October that Jones couldn’t use chapter safety to keep away from paying households, and was nonetheless chargeable for $1.1 billion of the unique punishment. Jones continues to be interesting the unique judgment.
“Today is the first time Mr. Jones has publicly shared his plan to be accountable for the harm he’s caused these families,” Avi Moshenberg, a lawyer representing victims’ members of the family who sued Jones in Texas, instructed The New York Times. “We’re very focused on the families receiving what is fair, and will share our review of Jones’s plan in due time.”
Christopher Mattei, a Connecticut lawyer representing the households, mentioned Jones’ proposal “falls woefully short” of what his purchasers are entitled to below the legislation. “The families’ plan is the only feasible path for ensuring that Jones’ assets are quickly distributed to those he has harassed for more than a decade,” he mentioned in an announcement Saturday.
Jones spent years profiting off lies concerning the capturing whereas grieving households of the victims confronted demise threats as Infowars, Jones’ pretend information firm, raked in hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.
As the chapter proceedings drag on, households have pointed to Jones’ opulent post-bankruptcy life-style, with stories displaying the conspiracist spending $100,000 a month. In a submitting in chapter court docket final month, the households argued that Jones “has refused to adhere to a reasonable budget.”
A Texas decide is predicted to carry hearings in late February to find out a ultimate chapter plan.
Last week, Elon Musk reinstated Jones’ account on Twitter, previously X. In an look on an X livestream hosted by Musk, Jones continued to disclaim accountability for the harassment and abuse skilled by the Sandy Hook households, insisting that he was simply taking part in “devil’s advocate” in his feedback on the capturing.