The families of the victims killed during the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School have offered to accept 6% of the settlement Alex Jones was ordered to pay.
Jones, the host of Infowars, was found liable for statements he made in the wake of the school shooting wherein he speculated about the validity and motivation behind the attack. He was ordered by a Connecticut court to pay nearly $1.4 billion to the plaintiffs of a defamation lawsuit in October of 2022. A Texas court had already ordered him to pay $50 million. The online personality subsequently declared bankruptcy as did Infowars' parent company, Free Speech Systems.
The Sandy Hook parents have now proposed Jones pay them $85 million over the course of 10 years at his personal bankruptcy hearing in Houston. Additionally, he will have to give the families 50% of any income over $9 million per year. The lawyers representing the families alternatively suggest Jones could liquidate his estate and use the proceeds to settle with his creditors.
Vickie Driver, the attorney representing Jones in the bankruptcy case, argued that the $85 million settlement was unrealistic.
“There are no financials that will ever show that Mr. Jones ever made that … in 10 years,” she said during the hearing, per Fortune.
The families have expressed frustration with Jones in recent weeks. In a statement filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Texas on Nov. 24, they argued that he “has not presented any viable path to emergence” and “has yet to sell a single non-exempt asset.”
“Nor has he done much of anything to preserve, let alone maximize, the value of his estate for the benefit of his creditors—predominantly the victims of Jones’s relentless campaign to defame the families of children and others murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School,” they said, per The Hill.
According to court documents, Free Speech Systems has projected it will earn $19.2 million during the upcoming year off the sale of dietary supplements, clothing and other items promoted on Jones’ show, which has an operating and salary expense of $14.3 million. The company estimated in its bankruptcy plant that it could pay about $4 million a year to the creditors, per AP News.
Jones reported $13 million in total assets.
“Under the bankruptcy case orders, Jones had been receiving a salary of $20,000 every two weeks, or $520,000 a year,” reports AP. “But this month, a court-appointed restructuring officer upped Jones’ pay to about $57,700 biweekly, or $1.5 million a year, saying he has been ‘grossly’ underpaid for how vital he is to the media company.”
Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez rejected the salary increase on Nov. 27.
Lopez will determine how much Jones must pay the families should the Infowars host opt to reject the new settlement offer.
