On Friday, the parent company of the far-right conspiracy website InfoWars filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection in the face of potential damages of up to $150 million in a trial over long-standing falsehoods Jones has perpetuated about the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre.
It would be expected that the trial and any related litigation would be put on hold following the bankruptcy filing by Free Speech Systems LLC, the parent company of InfoWars. According to a court filing, however, Free Speech intends to ask a bankruptcy judge on Monday to allow the ongoing trial in Texas.
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On the other hand, Jones and his company may try to use the bankruptcy proceedings started in another Texas court to reduce the number of damages awarded by the jury.
InfoWars Declares Bankruptcy
When three other InfoWars entities filed for bankruptcy in April, they proposed paying $10 million to settle the litigation. This amount is significantly less than what the Sandy Hook families are asking for. In exchange for the money, Jones and his company would be released from the lawsuits, according to the proposal.
After the Sandy Hook families dropped them as defendants in the defamation litigation in June, the previously bankrupt entities voluntarily ended their cases (InfoW, IW Health, and Prison Planet).
In lawsuits filed by Sandy Hook families, Jones was found liable for his false claims that the 2012 school massacre was a hoax.
Judgments were rendered unusually because Jones refused to comply with the court’s orders to produce evidence. Trials to determine damages have since been scheduled for the cases, with the first trial currently underway in an Austin, Texas, courtroom.
Jones asserted that proponents of gun control and the mainstream media had invented the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, in which twenty children and six teachers were killed.
W. Marc Schwartz, the company’s restructuring advisor, stated in a court filing that Free Speech Systems believes it is in its best interests to continue the current damages trial because substantial resources have been spent on both sides, and the Sandy Hook plaintiffs would likely fight to keep the trial going despite the bankruptcy filing.
A bankruptcy filing by Jones in April drew opposition from the Sandy Hook families, who saw it as a “sinister” attempt to shield Jones’ assets from liability.
Schwartz claims that the current bankruptcy filing is due to the fact that major internet, social media, and financial institutions have shunned InfoWars as a result of the Sandy Hook litigation. He claimed that the company’s revenue dropped as a result.
Attorney Mark Bankston, who is representing the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, told reporters that he was looking forward to presenting the case to the jury, which could include testimony from the parents of one of the children killed at the school as early as Monday.
Bankston said, “Our clients are pleased that despite the bankruptcy, their trial will continue and that the jury will return a verdict.” “InfoWars is on a collision course with its long-awaited reckoning.”
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