Thread: Alex Jones - Infowars

Wow. That was unexpected. Deserved.

That will look good on his Wiki page.

Nearly a billion.

Best news for a while.

That should shut his big fat ugly cake hole.

Fucking magic.

Unfortunately little if any will reach the plantiffs. The kunt will claim bankruptcy and have shell companies where a good portion of his ill gotten cash is hidden.

^I think they recognize that and I believe I’ve posted about it before. It might take some time,……but those families will receive a good bit of money.

Norton,……if you were an attorney; and one of the best in the US, that collected debt for a living and saw those numbers above wouldn’t you be knocking on doors?

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It’s not entirely over yet……

Jurors also awarded punitive damages for defamation to Sandy Hook families and a first responder.

In Connecticut, punitive damages are limited to attorneys’ fees and costs. The judge will determine the exact amount conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his company will have to pay. That will happen at a hearing after the trial concludes.

In the coming weeks, the judge will also decide whether to award punitive damages for plaintiffs' claim that Jones violated the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Actjury (CUTPA), and if so, how much to award.

While Connecticut law caps punitive damages for defamation claims, it does not limit punitive damages for CUTPA claims.

Just a note: If you’ve watched some of the remarks the judge has made during the trial, she’ll likely impose damages.

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Starts at 7:00

Originally Posted by S Landreth

Norton,……if you were an attorney; and one of the best in the US, that collected debt for a living and saw those numbers above wouldn’t you be knocking on doors?

Sure would especially if I had a percentage of the settlement. Agree, sure the folks will get something but how significant remains to be seen. Really a shame the law doesn't allow criminal charges for scumbags like Jones.

Originally Posted by clive2004

No free speech on here then!

Getting a bit concerned about you, clive.

Do you see lizard people?

Originally Posted by cyrille

Do you see lizard people?

Clive seems to be a bit thick.

Alex Jones is really...different.

Years ago I watched some of his shows/sermons.

Amazing

Had this WTF feeling


Wonder how he got his butter tenor voice ?

Bourbon or moonshine ?

Originally Posted by clive2004

Don't talk daft, a billion for hurty words? not even a real crime.

I think he'll make the most of his martyrdom

Now he has his own "conspiracy".

Originally Posted by helge

he has his own "conspiracy".

yep he'll be crowd funding down that deep trailer trash rabbit hole

• Alex Jones faces long odds hiding assets after $1 billion Sandy Hook verdict, experts say

Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has vowed to fight a nearly $1 billion defamation verdict against him, but experts say neither bankruptcy nor an appeal of a Connecticut jury’s findings on Wednesday are likely to salvage his personal fortune and media empire.

A jury in Waterbury, Connecticut, state court found Jones and the parent company of his Infowars website must pay $965 million to numerous families of the 20 children and six staff members slain at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012 for claiming they were actors who faked the tragedy as part of a government plot.

The verdict could grow substantially when a judge decides how much to award in punitive damages next month. It also comes three months after a Texas jury awarded two Sandy Hook parents $49.3 million in a similar case.

Jones has said he will fight the verdict on appeal and use the recent bankruptcy of his company, Free Speech Systems LLC, to avoid paying. It is unclear if he and his companies could ever pay the verdicts in full, but attorneys for the plaintiffs have vowed to prevent him from shielding any of his assets.

“We’re confident we will recover as much of the verdict as we can in the near-term, and in the long-term, this verdict isn’t going anywhere,” Chris Mattei, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said.

Infowars' finances are not public, but according to trial testimony the site brought in revenue of at least $165 million between 2016 and 2018. An economist in the Texas case estimated that Jones is personally worth between $135 million and $270 million.

Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy in July. The Sandy Hook families have intervened in the case and accused Jones of withdrawing up to $62 million from Free Speech Systems while burdening it with $54 million in "concocted" debt owed to a different company owned by Jones and his parents.

Bankruptcy courts have wide discretion to decide which creditors get paid first and are vigilant in cases where companies try to siphon out funds via debt held by shell entities, UConn School of Law professor Minor Myers said.

“No bankruptcy judge would allow Alex Jones and his dad to stand in line in front of the plaintiffs,” Myers said.

'EGREGIOUS' CONDUCT

Plaintiffs with judgments against bankrupt entities typically recover only a portion of what they are owed, along with other creditors whose debts are ranked in priority by the court.

For judgments involving intentional infliction of harm, however, courts will often rule that plaintiffs can continue seeking payment after the bankruptcy is concluded by going after wages and other assets, experts say.

Jones’ “underlying conduct was egregious, and that’s the kind of thing that could get you beyond the limits of a bankruptcy,” Brian Kabateck, an attorney who was not involved in the case, told Reuters.

In the near-term, Jones is unlikely to prevail if he asks a judge or appeals court to reduce the verdict on the grounds that it is excessive, according to several Connecticut attorneys.

Unlike some states, Connecticut does not cap compensatory damages, and judges there rarely question jury verdicts because the legal standard for doing so is high, attorney Mike D’Amico said.

While the verdict is eye-popping, it includes more than a dozen plaintiffs who say they suffered years of harassment, death threats and stalking at the hands of Jones’ followers.

D’Amico said a billion-dollar verdict is appropriate given the uniquely tragic circumstances of the case and egregious nature of Jones’ conduct.

“This was a tragedy unspeakable in terms of its impact and involves conduct that is just so abhorrent,” D’Amico said. “This is the kind of award you would expect.”

Jones may have also hurt his chances by repeatedly violating court orders, claiming the trial was a sham and erupting into a tirade against “liberals” during his testimony. Syracuse University College of Law professor Roy Gutterman said that Jones' "contempt for the system" will likely undermine any appeal.

“It's going to be a big ask for the defendant to come back to the court and say, ‘Will you now please reduce this to something a little more reasonable?” Gutterman said.

• Alex Jones Demands New Sandy Hook Trial in Connecticut

Alex Jones Demands New Sandy Hook Trial, Claims ‘Half-Truths’ Inflamed Connecticut Jury’s ‘Passion and Prejudice’

Infowars host Alex Jones on Friday asked a Connecticut superior court judge to set aside a nearly $1 billion verdict in favor of families who lost loved ones in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The families sued Jones over his myriad conspiracy theories surrounding the Dec. 14, 2012 mass murder — including Jones’ since-retracted claims that the shooting was a “hoax.”

In another document, Jones lawyers Norm Pattis and Kevin Smith say the judge’s handling of the case “resulted in a complete abdication of the trial court’s role in assuring a fair trial and that the amount of the compensatory damages award exceeds any rational relationship to the evidence officered at trial.”

“The defendants seek a new trial,” that document says. “The verdict in the instant case is both unjust and against the weight of the evidence.”

The four documents filed by the defense are a motion to set aside the verdict (which calls for a new trial), a motion for “remittitur” (which is a request to correct an allegedly unfair damages award, sometimes without a new trial, though one is requested here), and two separate memoranda of law in support of those two motions.

Jones’ attorneys argue that the default judgment itself should be characterized and viewed as a violation of state law given that the underlying dispute involves the First Amendment — though they admitted the question remains open in Connecticut regarding “whether a liability default is ever appropriate in a case involving speech.”

Jones’ attorneys also wrote that the trial judge “eviscerated” the “concept of causation” by allowing the jury to simply assume that the harms suffered by the plaintiffs were related “to anything Mr. Jones said or did.”

The filings also allege that the plaintiffs improperly argued that Jones needed to be “stopped” from committing similar future acts. That tactic, according to Jones, was an improper substitute for a properly argued compensatory damages claim for specific harms suffered

DocumentCloud

Jones’ attorneys also wrote that the trial judge “eviscerated” the “concept of causation” by allowing the jury to simply assume that the harms suffered by the plaintiffs were related “to anything Mr. Jones said or did.”

Are these Amber Heard's lawyers by any chance?

• Alex Jones’ Sandy Hook conspiracy trial moves to punitive damages phase

Infowars host Alex Jones faces the possibility of having more steep penalties heaped onto the vast amount he already owes for spreading conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, as the punitive damages phase began Friday in a lawsuit filed by the victims’ families.

A Connecticut jury last month ordered Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, to pay $965 million to the Sandy Hook families for harm they suffered after he persuaded his audience that the 2012 shooting that killed 26 people was a hoax perpetrated by “crisis actors.”

The jury also said punitive damages should be awarded. That amount, to be determined by Judge Barbara Bellis following the court hearing Friday and another one Monday, would be added to the compensatory damages already ordered.

Friday’s hearing, which was only about the plaintiffs’ legal fees and was held via a video conference, suggested a big additional penalty was possible for Jones.

Both sides reached agreement earlier this week that the families’ contract with their attorneys calls for them to receive one-third of the amount of the compensatory damages — nearly $322 million. If the judge approves punitive damages in the amount of the legal fees, that would increase what Jones and his company would have to pay the families to $1.29 billion.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers, in court filings, suggested punitive damages under the act could total $2.75 trillion based on one hypothetical calculation, but they have not asked for a specific amount.

“Justice requires that the Court’s punitive damages award, punish and deter this evil conduct,” attorneys Alinor Sterling, Christopher Mattei and Joshua Koskoff wrote in a motion. “Only a punitive damages assessment of historic size will serve those purposes.”

Jones’ lawyer, Norm Pattis, has asked the judge not to award any punitive damages under the Unfair Trade Practices Act.

“Few defendants alive could pay damages of this sum,” Pattis wrote in a brief. “Indeed, most defendants would be driven into bankruptcy, their livelihood destroyed, and their future transformed into the bleak prospect of a judgment debtor saddled for decades with a debt that cannot be satisfied. To regard this as anything other than punishment would be unjust.”

Jones was found liable last year for damages to eight victims’ relatives, and an FBI agent who responded to the school, for defamation, infliction of emotional distress and violating Connecticut’s Unfair Trade Practices Act.

On Monday, the judge will hear debate about damages under the Unfair Trade Practices Act. Although punitive damages are generally limited to attorneys’ fees for defamation and infliction of emotional distress, there are no such limits for punitive damages under that act.

Sandy Hook Families Seek Punitive Damages Against Alex Jones

Two Orders Spell Even More Financial Trouble for Alex Jones

Alex Jones Gets His Assets Frozen and Is Ordered to Pay Additional $473 Million in Punitive Damages by Sandy Hook Trial Judge He Called a ‘Tyrant’

Infowars host Alex Jones hit a double whammy this week as a judge in Connecticut issued two different orders against him that will put severe strain on his personal and business finances.

Waterbury Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis first froze the professional conspiracy theorist’s funds, temporarily barring him from transferring any assets or spending large sums of money over concerns that Jones might be “looting” his own finances and attempting to hide his assets via shell companies or with family members in order to avoid paying sizable judgments issued against him in a slew of recent court cases in multiple states.

Bellis oversaw the Sandy Hook defamation trial that ended last month with jurors assessing nearly $1 billion in damages. Earlier this year, jurors in Texas assessed Jones penalties totaling around $50 million.

“With the exception of ordinary living expenses, the defendant Alex Jones is not to transfer, encumber, dispose, or move his assets out of the United States, until further order of the court,” the judge wrote in a brief, one-page order obtained by Bloomberg.

The plaintiffs, eight families of people killed in the 2012 school massacre and an FBI agent who responded to the shooting, proved that Jones had defamed them and caused them emotional distress for years of baselessly alleging they were “crisis actors” and not victims.

The asset freeze was granted after the plaintiffs requested it from the court. Jones had implored the court not to grant the relief.

“[I]n an uncanny way it would bolster Mr. Jones’s contention that the results of these proceedings were rigged and that the court appeared partial to the plaintiffs,” an attorney for Jones unsuccessfully argued.

The Austin, Texas-based broadcaster has previously called Bellis a “tyrant” and, when pressed by counsel, stood by such remarks.

On Thursday, Bellis hit Jones with more bad news, ordering him and his business, Free Speech Systems, to pay an additional $473 million in punitive damages. The sum total of the damages against him over the Connecticut lawsuits now stands at $1.44 billion.

Again, the plaintiffs in the combined cases had requested such relief.

“Given the largely undisputed evidence of the degree of harm these vulnerable families suffered over a ten-year period, the jury may reasonably have concluded that its compensatory damages assessments were modest, and so may the Court,” the plaintiffs wrote in their successful bid for additional money.

Jones, by way of his attorneys, had taken issue with the request for additional damages by referring to amount he was ordered to pay as both “substantial” and “unprecedented” — and accusing the plaintiffs of asking for over a “trillion” dollars in punitive damages.

“The record clearly supports the plaintiffs’ argument that the defendants’ conduct was intentional and malicious, and certain to cause harm by virtue of their infrastructure, ability to spread content, and massive audience including the infowarriors,” Bellis wrote, in a ruling obtained by the Associated Press.

The wire service also took note of Jones’ reaction on his Thursday show.

“Well, of course I’m laughing at it,” he said. “It’d be like if you sent me a bill for a billion dollars in the mail. Oh man, we got you. It’s all for psychological effect. It’s all the Wizard of Oz.”

Jones is currently in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings in Houston. It is presently unclear what impact, if any, this week’s orders will have on those efforts to reorganize his assets.

Alex Jones ordered to pay $473M more to Sandy Hook families

• Sandy Hook Plaintiffs Respond to Alex Jones' New Trial Bid

‘Deeply Offensive’: Sandy Hook Plaintiffs File More Than 800 Pages to Stop Alex Jones’ Bid for New Trial and Reduction of Damages

Attorneys for Sandy Hook plaintiffs filed several hundred pages of court documents on Tuesday in order to push back against recent efforts by Infowars host Alex Jones‘ to escape the hundreds of millions of dollars in damages he was ordered by jurors and a judge to pay for years of promoting false and defamatory conspiracy theories.

In two separate filings in the same Connecticut court, spread across 815 pages, the individuals who recently won – and then won bigger – are trying to protect their winnings from remittitur arguments as well as a motion for a new trial.

In a bid to obtain a new jury trial, Jones cited a section of the Connecticut Constitution which reads that in “all prosecutions or indictments for libels, the truth may be given in evidence, and the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the facts, under the direction of the court.”

A judge entered a default judgment against Jones on the underlying allegations in the defamation lawsuit brought by eight families of people killed in the 2012 school massacre and an FBI agent who responded to the shooting – due to Jones’ repeat violations of his obligations under the law to provide the plaintiffs with relevant discovery. Later, jurors assessed damages nearly totaling $1 billion.

The conspiracy theorist’s legal argument is that language in the Nutmeg State’s founding charter mandates jurors decide the outcome of defamation cases – not just weigh in on the question of damages.

In response, the plaintiffs argue that the language in question only applies to criminal trials – not civil ones.

“The Connecticut Constitution confers no right to engage in egregious disobedience to Court orders and then vacate necessary resulting sanctions in any case, and it certainly confers no such right in this civil case,” one of the filings says. “Article First, section six, on which the defendants rely, applies only to criminal libel prosecutions, and not at all in this civil case.”

The filing goes on to argue that Jones “willfully obstructed discovery for years” and therefore “cannot complain about being defaulted now.”

Additionally, the plaintiffs argue that Jones’ and his attorneys’ own decisions during trial can’t form the basis for relief now.

“[T]hey chose not to cross-examine the plaintiffs on many issues, or, in some cases, at all,” the filing goes on. “And they chose not to call Alex Jones to the stand – twice. These were tactical decisions by the defendants and do not even possibly constitute judicial error, nor do any of their other arguments provide any basis for relief to the defendants.”

In the motion to deny Jones’ attempt to reduce the damages, the plaintiffs argue the conspiracy theorist simply did not try very hard in his previous court filings and that the “jury’s just verdict recognizes the profound harms suffered by fifteen people over ten years.”

Jones, by way of his attorneys, also attacked the closing arguments used by the plaintiffs as an improper effort to influence the jury. But, again, the plaintiffs note, Jones did not object to those arguments during trial.

“The defendants’ repeated claim that this trial was a ‘memorial service’ is both deeply offensive and typical of the defendants’ decision to ignore the real people whom they harmed,” the first filing says in conclusion. “Memorial services for the beloved departed would never happen in a courtroom. They would never involve discussion of Alex Jones. This was not, by any means, a ‘memorial,’ and the plaintiffs should not have to respond to such an argument.”

Texas judge backs jury's $49M award against Alex Jones

InfoWars founder Alex Jones must pay the full $49 million a jury awarded the parents of a Sandy Hook school shooting victim, a Texas judge ruled on Tuesday evening, according to multiple reports.

Why it matters: The amount is much higher than the cap set by Texas law that limits punitive damages to $750,000 per plaintiff — the constitutionality of which U.S. District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble questioned in this case, per the New York Times.

What they're saying: This was "a rare case" due to the emotional impact Jones' claims had on Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose son was among 20 students and six staff killed in the 2012 elementary school shooting, said the judge in Travis County, where InfoWars is based, per the NYT.

By the numbers: The jury in Texas awarded them $45.2 million in punitive damages last August for Jones falsely calling the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, a hoax.

• They also ordered the conspiracy theorist pay more than $4 million in damages to Heslin and Lewis, parents of the murdered 6-year-old Jesse Lewis.

What we're watching: Jones could appeal the ruling.

• Infowars host Alex Jones files for personal bankruptcy

Infowars host Alex Jones filed for personal bankruptcy protection in Texas on Friday as he faces nearly $1.5 billion in court judgments over conspiracy theories he spread about the Sandy Hook school massacre.

Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in bankruptcy court in Houston. His filing lists $1 billion to $10 billion in liabilities owed to 50 to 99 creditors and $1 million to $10 million in assets.

The bankruptcy filing comes as Jones faces court orders to pay nearly $1.5 billion in damages to relatives of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting for calling the massacre a hoax.

An attorney representing Jones in the bankruptcy case did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Alex Jones says he's 'done' apologizing to Sandy Hook parents

A Connecticut jury in October awarded the families $965 million in compensatory damages, and a judge later tacked on another $473 million in punitive damages. Earlier in the year, a Texas jury awarded the parents of a child killed in the shooting $49 million in damages.

In Connecticut, Jones also filed a notice Friday saying his bankruptcy filing halts all proceedings in that case. A judge was scheduled to hear arguments Friday morning in the Connecticut case on a motion by the Sandy Hook families to attach the assets of Jones and his company to secure money for the damages awards.

The families’ motion to secure Jones’ assets also asks the Connecticut judge to bar Jones from transferring or disposing any of his assets without permission of the court.

Jones has laughed at the awards on his Infowars show, saying he has less than $2 million to his name and won’t be able to pay such high amounts. The 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 the Texas and Connecticut cases, some relatives of the 20 children and six adults killed in the 2012 school shooting testified that they were threatened and harassed for years by people who believed the lies told on Jones’ show. One parent testified that conspiracy theorists urinated on his 7-year-old son’s grave and threatened to dig up the coffin.

Erica Lafferty, the daughter of slain Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung, testified that people mailed rape threats to her house.

In documents filed in Free Speech Systems’ 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’ salary was listed at $20,000 every two weeks.

Alex Jones says he's 'done' apologizing to Sandy Hook parents

What a cynt. I reckon the families were ‘done’ with his shite for fucking years.

• Judge strips Alex Jones of bankruptcy protections after he tried to dodge $1.5B Sandy Hook judgment

Houston Judge Christopher M. López reportedly ended a stay preventing Sandy Hook families from collecting a $1.5 billion judgment against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

In a ruling on Monday, López granted an order to lift a stay that was automatically put in place when Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections.

The judge set the order "immediately to (i) allow the Sandy Hook Post-Trial Families' Cases to continue to proceed to entry of final judgment and (ii) once judgments are entered, to allow appeals, if any, to proceed and the Sandy Hook Post-Trial Families to pursue, respond to and participate in any such appeals without further order of the Court."

News 12's John Craven reported that the families of Sandy Hook victims agreed to postpone collection of the massive debt for now.

John Craven - JUST IN: Sandy Hook families may proceed with $1.5 billion in judgments against Alex Jones. A bankruptcy judge just approved an agreement to lift the automatic stay that went into effect when Jones filed for bankruptcy

The families agreed to not pursue collection efforts yet https://twitter.com/johncraven1/stat...53330018668545

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• Alex Jones Fights in Bankruptcy for $1.3 Million Infowars Salary

Alex Jones, the conservative firebrand ordered to pay more than $1 billion to families of Sandy Hook shooting victims, will ask a Texas bankruptcy judge Monday to force the bankrupt parent of Infowars to fully honor his $1.3 million annual salary.

The radio host has been receiving less than half of his previous Infowars salary of $54,000 every two weeks since parent company Free Speech Systems LLC filed for Chapter 11 protection in July. Jones will argue to the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas that Free Speech should be required to pay his salary in full as a condition of the company’s request to continue spending money while in bankruptcy, he said in a Dec. 16 court filing.

The dispute over Jones’ salary has become more salient since the conspiratorial host filed his own personal bankruptcy case earlier this month in the face of recent court rulings awarding families of slain Sandy Hook victims over $1 billion.

Free Speech agreed in April to pay its owner $1.3 million annually for hosting the Infowars broadcast, but the company has been paying Jones a biweekly salary of just $20,000 since late August, Jones said in the filing.

The salary paid to date is “a severe reduction from the salary Jones is due under the agreement,” Jones said in the filing. Jones is also seeking to be reimbursed for expenses paid out of pocket to fund Infowars’ content creation, advertisement, and promotional services.

In a proposed order filed Monday to cover expenses for the next four weeks, Free Speech seeks to make the same $20,000 biweekly payment to Jones, laying grounds for debate at the afternoon hearing. The reduced salary had been authorized by the bankruptcy court.

Jones, who continues to host Infowars and further the program’s agenda of appealing to far-right listeners, has said it’s impossible for him to pay the Sandy Hook defamation damages with the less than $12 million in assets he has on hand.

Meanwhile, the Sandy Hook families are working to investigate more than $10 million in donations Jones received from fans after courts in Texas and Connecticut handed down the damages awards.

Alex Jones Fights in Bankruptcy for $1.3 Million Infowars Salary

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Bankrupted Alex Jones seeks emergency order to keep his power on

Alex Jones Attorney’s Law License Suspended

Judge Suspends Law License of Alex Jones' Attorney After Releasing Unauthorized Files

A judge has suspended the law license of Norm Pattis, Alex Jones' attorney, for six months after he allegedly released unauthorized Sandy Hook files.

The files released include the personal medical records of several Sandy Hook families during the Connecticut defamation case.

"Simply put, given his experience, there is no acceptable excuse for his misconduct," Judge Barbara Bellis said in a court decision released Thursday.

Pattis is one of the state's most well-known defense attorneys. He said he plans to appeal the decision.

"We cannot expect our system of justice or our attorneys to be perfect but we can expect fundamental fairness and decency. There was no fairness or decency in the treatment of the plaintiffs' most sensitive and personal information, and no excuse for the respondent's misconduct," Bellis wrote.

She goes on to say that because of this, the court agrees with the Disciplinary Counsel's recommendation to suspend Pattis from practicing law for several months.

In a statement to NBC Connecticut, Pattis acknowledged the judgment, saying he's currently in Washington, D.C. for the Proud Boys insurrection case.

Only six months? Sounds like a light. Whatakhunt!