A federal bankruptcy judge has kicked off the process of liquidating right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ media company assets to pay the $1.5 billion judgment he owes to family members of Sandy Hook school shooting victims.
The auction is scheduled for Nov. 13 and will include properties owned by Free Speech Systems, the parent company used by Jones for his productions. Among the assets set to be auctioned off are the “Infowars” websites, social media accounts, trademarks, and other copyrighted material.
Jones has called on his supporters—who have spent millions over the years on dubious supplements and doomsday prepper products hawked by the “Infowars” host—to purchase his company’s assets. On a recent episode of his show, Jones referred to these possible benefactors as “patriot buyers.”
Jones lost two civil suits brought against him by the families and has been ordered to pay more than $1.5 billion in damages. The 2012 shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, claimed the lives of 26 people, among them 20 children between the ages of 6 and 7.
On his show, Jones repeatedly claimed that the shooting was a hoax and a “false flag” meant to build support for gun control laws. Jones promoted numerous falsehoods connected to the event, which led to parents of the murdered children getting harassed and threatened.