A judge has ordered the liquidation of Infowars host Alex Jones’ personal assets, clearing the way for potential payouts to families of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting.
Relatives of the victims have won a total of $1.5bn (£1.18bn) in judgements against Mr Jones over his false statements about the attack.
US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez ordered the liquidation during a hearing in Houston on Friday.
Mr Lopez was also considering the liquidation of Mr Jones’ company Free Speech Systems, which owns his media brand, Infowars.
That decision could lead to the sale of the company’s assets, including its studios, products and social media accounts.
According to recent court filings, Mr Jones has around $8.6m (£6.8m) in personal assets, including properties, cars, boats and guns.
Following the December 2012 attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Mr Jones and guests on his broadcasts repeatedly called into question whether the massacre actually occurred, floating conspiracy theories about whether the murders were faked or carried out by government agents.
Twenty young children and six school staff were killed in the attack.
At one point Mr Jones called the attack “a giant hoax” and in 2015 he said: “Sandy Hook is a synthetic, completely fake with actors, in my view, manufactured… I knew they had actors there clearly but I thought they killed some real kids, and it just shows how bold they are, that they clearly used actors.”
Mr Jones has since acknowledged that the Sandy Hook killings occurred.
Following the broadcasts, victims of the families were harassed online and in person by Infowars viewers. The families filed defamation lawsuits in Connecticut in Texas, and their legal victories resulted in Mr Jones and Free Speech Systems declaring bankruptcy.
Friday’s hearing was over whether those bankruptcy cases would be converted from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7, a portion of US bankruptcy law that allows straightforward liquidation rather than more complicated financial restructuring.
If the liquidations go ahead, Mr Jones would still be free to continue to set up other companies and continue to broadcast.
On recent broadcasts and on his social media accounts, he has continued to rail against the US justice system and claim that there is a government plot to silence him.
“What we’re witnessing here is lawfare and the weaponisation of the legal system,” he said in a video posted during a break in court proceedings Friday, before promoting upcoming interviews with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and British actor Russell Brand.
During the hearing, lawyers for the families claimed that the conspiracy theorist was attempting to reduce the value of his company – for instance by urging listeners to buy products from a company owned by his father rather than directly from Infowars.
But Mr Jones’ lawyers countered by arguing that in recent weeks, the company has seen record sales.
