HOUSTON 鈥� Infowars host filed for personal bankruptcy protection Friday in Texas, citing debts that include nearly $1.5 billion he has been ordered to pay to families who sued him over his conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook school massacre.
Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Houston. His filing listed $1 billion to $10 billion in liabilities and $1 million to $10 million in assets.
Jones acknowledged the filing on his Infowars broadcast, saying the case will prove that he鈥檚 broke and asking viewers to shop on his website to help keep the show on the air.
鈥淚鈥檓 officially out of money, personally,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all going to be filed. It鈥檚 all going to be public. And you will see that Alex Jones has almost no cash.鈥�
Jones said he would not be commenting further on the bankruptcy.
For years, Jones described the 2012 massacre as a hoax. A sa国际传媒icut jury in October , and a in punitive damages. Earlier in the year, a Texas jury awarded the parents of a child killed in the shooting $49 million in damages.
The bankruptcy filing temporarily halted all proceedings in the sa国际传媒icut case. A judge was forced to cancel a hearing scheduled for Friday on the Sandy Hook families鈥� request to secure the assets of Jones and his company to help pay the nearly $1.4 billion in damages awarded there.
Chris Mattei, an attorney for the Sandy Hook families in the sa国际传媒icut case, criticized the bankruptcy filing.
鈥淟ike every other cowardly move Alex Jones has made, this bankruptcy will not work,鈥� Mattei said in a statement. 鈥淭he bankruptcy system does not protect anyone who engages in intentional and egregious attacks on others, as Mr. Jones did. The American judicial system will hold Alex Jones accountable, and we will never stop working to enforce the jury鈥檚 verdict.鈥�
An attorney representing Jones in the bankruptcy case did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
In the Texas and sa国际传媒icut cases, some relatives of the 20 children and six adults killed in the school shooting testified that they were threatened and harassed for years by people who believed the lies told on Jones鈥� show. One parent testified that conspiracy theorists urinated on his 7-year-old son's grave and .
Erica Lafferty, the daughter of slain Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung, that people mailed rape threats to her house.
Jones has laughed at the awards on his Infowars show, saying he has less than $2 million to his name and won鈥檛 be able to pay such high amounts. Those comments contradicted the testimony of a forensic economist at the Texas trial, who said Jones and his company Free Speech Systems have a combined net worth as high as $270 million. Free Speech Systems is also seeking bankruptcy protection.
In documents filed in Free Speech Systems鈥� bankruptcy case in Texas, a budget for the company for Oct. 29 to Nov. 25 estimated product sales would total $2.5 million, while operating expenses would be about $740,000. Jones鈥� salary was listed at $20,000 every two weeks.
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Collins reported from Hartford, sa国际传媒icut, and Bleed reported from Little Rock, Arkansas.
Dave Collins And Jill Bleed, The Associated Press
