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Oct. 21 (UPI) — Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones cannot use bankruptcy protection to avoid paying more than $1 billion in damages owed to his victims stemming from a civil trial, a federal judge has ruled.
Federal Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez ruled in Houston late Thursday that Jones is still responsible for damages won against him by the families of children slain in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
“Summary judgment is denied as to any other relief requested by Plaintiffs,” Lopez wrote to conclude his 18-page ruling. “Any objection raised by Jones not specifically addressed above is denied.”
Jones was ordered last October to pay over $1 billion in various damages to the parents of eight victims of the shooting after being convicted in civil court for repeatedly calling the deadly attack a hoax and spreading other lies related to it on his Infowars online news program.
In court, Jones later admitted the mass shooting that claimed 26 lives was “100% real.”
During his broadcasts, however, Jones referred to the mass shooting as fake, saying “the whole thing is a giant hoax.” He also accused families of being so-called crisis actors.
Jones was also found liable by a judge during the trial for refusing to turn over critical evidence ahead of the proceedings.
In seeking the summary judgement, attorneys for the Sandy Hook families argued that Jones could not “relitigate” state court findings in bankruptcy court.
“The debtor had his chance, he blew it, [and] he wants a mulligan,” they wrote in their request.
In his decision, Lopez said the bankruptcy court “will not retry Jones’s liability,” will not “revisit Jones’s arguments about the constitutionality of the state court’s finding that he is liable for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress,” and will not provide “a forum to retry deemed admissions under the default judgment orders that constitute willful and malicious injuries.”
Jones filed for bankruptcy in December after a judge ordered him to pay a total of $1.44 billion to his victims. A $120 million judgment is the largest amount awarded by the judge to one single victim among the group.
His Infowars company later filed for bankruptcy in July, while he has also launched appeals of the verdicts against him in state court.
Jones, 49, had been attempting to shield himself from the payments under Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
His victims had previously asked the judge to bar Jones from liquidating his current media assets and then starting a new company, which would be free from previous judgments. Such a move would likely result in much smaller amounts being paid to victims’ families through a settlement.