In an “emergency” motion filed Sunday in Houston, Administrator Christopher Murray indicated publicly for the first time that he intends to “conduct an orderly cessation” of the operations of Infowars’ parent company and to “liquidate its stocks”. Murray, who was appointed by a federal judge to oversee assets in Jones’ personal bankruptcy case, did not give a timetable for the liquidation.
Jones has said on his web and radio shows that he expects Infowars to operate for a few more months before it closes due to bankruptcy. But he has pledged to continue his bombastic broadcasts in another way, possibly on social media. He had also talked about someone else buying the company and allowing him to continue his shows as an employee.
Murray also asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez to immediately halt the Sandy Hook families’ efforts to collect the enormous amount Jones owes them. Murray said the efforts would interfere with his plans to close the parent company, Free Speech Systems in Austin, Texas, and sell its assets — with much of the profits going to the families.
Lawyers for the parents of one of the 20 children killed in the Newtown, Conn., shooting Friday asked a Texas state judge to order Free Speech Systems, or FSS, to release to the families certain assets, including money in the bank. accounts, and garnish his accounts. Judge Maya Guerra Gamble approved the request, according to court records, which triggered Murray’s emergency motion.
The parents, Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose 6-year-old son, Jesse Lewis, was killed in the shooting, won $50 million verdict in Texas on Jones’ lies that the shooting was a hoax staged by crisis actors in an effort to increase gun control. In a separate trial in Connecticut, Jones was ordered to pay other Sandy Hook families. more than $1.4 billion for defamation and emotional distress.
Referring to the families’ recovery efforts, Murray said in Sunday’s court filing that “the specter of a haphazard seizure of FSS’s assets, including its liquidity, threatens to plunge the company into chaos or even to stop him dead in his tracks. prejudice” of his duties in Jones’ personal bankruptcy case.
“The Trustee requests the Court’s intervention to prevent a value-destroying cash grab and allow an orderly process to take its course,” Murray said.
Murray also asked the judge to clarify his authority over Jones’ bank accounts. As part of Jones’ personal bankruptcy filing, his ownership rights to FSS were assigned to Murray. In the meantime, Jones continues his daily broadcasts.
It was not immediately clear when the bankruptcy judge would rule on Murray’s motion.
Bankruptcy attorneys for Jones, Heslin and Lewis did not immediately return messages seeking comment Monday.
Christopher Mattei, attorney for the Sandy Hook families in the Connecticut lawsuit, said they support the trustee’s new motion. He also said the families were disappointed with the motion filed Friday in Texas court by Heslin and Lewis, which he said would “jeopardize” a fair distribution of Jones’ assets among all the families.
“This is precisely the unfortunate situation that the Connecticut (lawsuit) families were hoping to avoid,” Mattei said.
The families involved in the two lawsuits, who have yet to receive anything from Jones, appear likely to receive only a fraction of what Jones owes them.
Jones has approximately $9 million in personal assets, according to the most recent financial documents filed in court. Free Speech Systems has about $6 million in cash and about $1.2 million in inventory, according to recent court testimony.
On June 14, Lopez, the bankruptcy judge, approved the conversion of Jones’ personal bankruptcy case. from reorganization to liquidation, which is what Jones asked for. Lopez also dismissed FSS’s reorganization bankruptcy filing, after attorneys for the Jones and Sandy Hook families could not agree on a final bankruptcy plan.
The bankruptcy cases automatically ended the families’ efforts to recover part of the $1.5 billion provided by federal law. The dismissal of the FSS bankruptcy meant that the families would have to move these efforts from the bankruptcy court to the state courts of Texas and Connecticut, where they obtained the legal judgments.
Jones and Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy in 2022, the same year that relatives of many victims of the school shooting that killed 20 first graders and six educators won their cases.
Relatives said they were traumatized by Jones’ plots and the actions of his supporters. They testified to having been harassed and threatened by Jones’ supporters, some of whom confronted grieving families in person saying the shooting never happened and their children never existed. A parent said someone threatened to dig up her deceased son’s grave.
Jones is appealing the rulings in state courts. He said he now believes the shooting happened, but the right to free speech allows him to say otherwise.
