Sayonara, InfoWars.
A court-appointed bankruptcy trustee plans to shut down and liquidate Alex Jones’ conspiracy website in order to pay his creditors, according to an “emergency” filing submitted over the weekend and first reported by the Associated Press.
The far-right provocateur owes $1.5 billion to the families of Sandy Hook victims. He was being found liable for defamation after he repeatedly used his platform to claim the tragic 2012 school shooting was a hoax.
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The “orderly wind-down” of InfoWars isn’t exactly a surprise—Jones himself has been warning this would happen for months in his broadcasts. But the Sunday filing is the first indication by the court appointed trustee, Christopher Murray, that the plan is already in motion.
Murray, who was appointed by a federal judge to oversee the assets in Jones’ personal bankruptcy case, has not given a timetable for the media company’s liquidation. Earlier this month a crying Jones revealed InfoWars had just a few more months left before it’d have to shut down because of the bankruptcy.
He has, however, expressed an interest in continuing his broadcast career on social media—or even as an employee of InfoWars if it can be purchased by a new owner, according to the Associated Press.
Jones’ attitude has changed drastically from October 2022, when he brazenly mocked his defamation victims on a live stream as a jury read the guilty verdict against him. He laughed, claiming they’d never see a dime of his money.
“You get a million, you get $100 million, you get $50 million... Do these people actually think they’re getting any of this money?” he said, imitating Oprah.
Now, with reality kicking in, Jones appears to be coming to terms with the consequences of the lies he spread.
He burst into tears during a stream earlier this month, shortly before he revealed that the headwinds threatening to shutter InfoWars.
“I’m out of bullets,” he said—a peculiar choice of words, given his company is being shuttered on behalf of the families of gun violence victims. “I’m out of money, and my dad’s out of money, and he would help me. I’m out of options, and that’s where we are.”
Nicole Hockley, who was awarded $73.6 million in the case against Jones, told The Daily Beast in 2022 that Sandy Hook families’ pursuit of justice against Jones was never about the money. Instead, she said they went after his pocket because they knew it was the only way to hurt him.
Hockley, who founded the non-profit Sandy Hook Promise, could not be reached for comment Monday. The attorney Christopher M. Mattei, who represents many Sandy Hook families, did not immediately return a request for comment.
“This was never about the money for us,” Hockley told The Daily Beast previously. “But taking money is the only way we can hurt Alex Jones. And I think every family is happy to see him hurt, even if only financially.”
