- Alex Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas court on Friday.
- Jones owes families of the Sandy Hook shooting nearly $1.4 billion after two trials this year.
Alex Jones filed for bankruptcy Friday, just under two months after he was ordered to pay nearly $1 billion in compensatory damages to families of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting victims, according to court filings reviewed by Insider.
$4 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Houston, Texas, bankruptcy court, naming the victims' families as his creditors.
In the court filing, he estimated he has $1 billion to $10 billion in liabilities, compared to an estimate of $1 million to $10 million in assets.
Chris Mattei, an attorney representing the Sandy Hook families, issued a statement to Insider after the news of Jones' bankruptcy.
"Like every other cowardly move Alex Jones has made, this bankruptcy will not work," Mattei said. "The 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's verdict."
Representatives for Jones did not immediately return Insider's request for comment Friday morning.
Jones is on the hook for $1.4 billion after two trials this year that dealt with his spreading lies about the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Twenty-seven people and the gunman were killed in the massacre, and most of the victims were first-graders.
Jones had said that the shooting was staged by the government to provide a pretext to restrict gun rights. Several families sued, claiming Jones' lies resulted in them being harassed by hoax believers for years.
Jones was found liable by default in the three lawsuits last year, when he refused to turn over financial documents associated with his company, Free Speech Systems, which also filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.
Two of those lawsuits went to trial this year, to determine how much Jones owed the victims.
In Texas, Jones was ordered to pay $49 million in damages to the parents of Sandy Hook victim Jesse Lewis. The second trial in Connecticut involved more than a dozen plaintiffs, and in the end the jury ordered Jones to pay nearly $4 in compensatory damages. A judge in that case later added another $4. Jones is still awaiting trial in a third case, filed by the parents of Sandy Hook victim Noah Pozner, back in Texas.
Throughout the two trials, Jones raged against the justice system on Infowars, calling them "kangaroo courts."
He argued that his comments about Sandy Hook constituted First Amendment protected free speech, but he lost the ability to make that argument in court when he refused to cooperate with the discovery process and turn over evidence, leading to the default rulings.
In recent months, Jones has been constantly soliciting his viewers for direct donations on Infowars, urging them to donate to help him keep fighting.