Alex Jones’ Infowars Files For Bankruptcy Over Promotion Of Sandy Hook Conspiracy Theories

After the Sandy Hook families turned down far-right radio show host Alex Jones' settlement offer of $120,000 each amid a defamation lawsuit, Jones' website, Infowars, has filed for bankruptcy.

Specifically, Jones and Infowars have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, where many of the lawsuits have taken place.

That filing will halt and perhaps permanently stop all civil legislation against him, including the defamation lawsuits from the Sandy Hook families. It also allows companies to "prepare turnaround plans while remaining operational," according to NBC.

Jones was in court with the Sandy Hook families over promoting the false conspiracy theory that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, which took place in Newtown, Conn., was a false flag attack. After the shooting left 28 dead, including 20 children under the age of 10, there was a renewed attempt in Washington politics, championed by then-President Barack Obama, to pass gun control legislation.

The efforts to pass gun control laws faced pushback from conservatives who accused the administration of politicizing the event, while far-right conspiracy theorists jumped on the false-flag narrative promoted by Jones and Infowars, among other far-right figures. Conspiracy theorists claimed that the massacre was a false flag attack to justify gun control activists taking people's guns and stripping their civil liberties.

Ultimately, while state legislation was passed in Connecticut, federal gun control legislation failed. Obama regards that failure as one of his biggest disappointments during his time in office.

In light of the defamation suit, Jones has denied any wrongdoing and claims the First Amendment's free speech clause protects him from any injuries the victims' families incurred because of what he said and promoted. Eventually, Jones walked back his claims to try and shield himself from liability, but the damage was already done.

The families claimed they received death threats, among a litany of proven damages, in response to Jones' promotion of the conspiracy theory, which some still believe almost 10 years after the nation's most heartbreaking mass-school shooting.

Jones and Infowars have attempted to stall the lawsuits in an attempt to avoid what looked to be the inevitable outcome -- that Jones would be held responsible for paying damages to the vitims' families.

This conspiracy is one of many outlandish claims Jones has promoted over the years, including those about LGBTQ2S+ people and their communities. He was also a supporter of "the big lie" -- that the 2020 election was stolen and that former President Donald Trump actually won. Jones has been a staunch Trump supporter from the beginning of Trump's 2016 campaign, but many view him as one of the more controversial figures of the far right.