(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) On Friday, Infowars host Alex Jones filed for bankruptcy just three weeks after he and the parent company of his website were ordered to pay another almost half a billion dollars, after being told to pay $1 billion before that, according to the Post Millennial.
The right-wing commentator was commanded to pay the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting $965 million on Oct. 12. However, a judge upped the punishment by another $473 million in punitive damages in the defamation suit a month later.
Reuters reported that, according to a US bankruptcy court filing, Jones filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors.
The filing also says that Jones has $1-10 million in assets and $1-10 billion in liabilities.
Despite that Jones walked back his statements about his theories about the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, in her ruling, Connecticut Judge Barbara Bellis continued a witch-hunt on Jones by ordering him to pay an additional $473 million.
“The record clearly supports the plaintiffs’ argument that the defendant’s conduct was intentional and malicious, and certain to cause harm by virtue of their infrastructure, ability to spread content, and massive audience including the info warriors,” she said in her ruling.
Fox News reported that $150 million is included in the $473 million which will be paid for violating the Unfair Trade Practices Act in Connecticut. The rest of the money will be spent on attorney fees and additional costs for the plaintiffs.
The court handed the fine to Jones and Free Speech Systems, the parent company of Infowars. The latter reportedly filed for bankruptcy in July.
In a separate August case, a Texas jury found that Jones must pay $45.2 million in punitive damages, plus $4.1 million in compensatory damages, to the parents of a boy killed in the shooting.
Jones’s lawyer said that Jones will attempt to appeal both the Connecticut and Texas verdicts.
