Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ latest bankruptcy plan would pay Sandy Hook families a minimum total of $55 million over 10 years, a fraction of the nearly $1.5 billion awarded to the relatives in lawsuits against Jones for calling the 2012 Newtown school shooting a hoax.

The families, meanwhile, have filed their own proposal seeking to liquidate nearly all of Jones’ assets, including his media company Free Speech Systems, and give the proceeds to them and other creditors.

The dueling plans, filed late Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston, will be debated and challenged over the next two months, with hearings scheduled for February that will result in a final order saying how much Jones will have to pay out.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Very much so. Here are a couple of their responses after the verdict:

        “I know that this is not the end of Alex Jones in my life. I know that his hate, lies and conspiracy theories will follow both me and my family through the rest of our days,” Erica Lafferty said. “But I am hopeful that it may save other families from high profile tragedies from the cycle of abuse and re-traumatization that we have all been put through.”

        “The internet is not the wild, wild west, and that your actions have consequences,” William Sherlach, relative of a shooting victim said. “Going forward, because unfortunately, there will be other horrific events like this, people like Alex Jones will have to rethink what they say.”

        https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/national-international-news/sandy-hook-victim-families-react-to-verdict-in-jones-defamation-case/2891730/

        • SkybreakerEngineer@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Except this is just him low-balling the plaintiffs’ offer to settle for $85m. He’s been stalling for years and Lafferty is slowly dying of cancer

          • girlfreddy@sh.itjust.works
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            11 months ago

            Speaking with ABC News’ Linsey Davis, Lafferty said she can no longer afford the chemotherapy that could potentially save her life. The necessary medical care could cost as much as $45,000 per month, according to Lafferty. Source

            Jayzuz. :'(

            • Billiam@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              America: where you can die from cancer due to being unable to afford the wildly overpriced treatments because the asshole who owes you millions of dollars for lying about your mother dying in a school shooting can spend over a decade stalling justice.

      • sbv@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        It blows my mind that Jones still has a platform and money after the shit he pulled on those families.

        • oDDmON@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          This is the true failure of our legal system, as well as countenancing lies as free speech for so long in the first place.

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    11 months ago

    The families aren’t actually interested in any money. They went to crush Alex Jones, and they are never gonna settle for less.

    • ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Good. They should push to make such a devastating example of this piece of shit that no one ever tries something similar again. Let him live the rest of his days in squalor. He has earned it.

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      11 months ago

      The families aren’t actually interested in any money

      That can’t be entirely true. These families need to pay for security to protect them from the frothing hordes of Infowarriors who continue to harass them to this day. They probably also need PR support to protect their names from being defamed further.

      Don’t get me wrong, I hope that they leave Jones penniless.

  • Red_October@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Didn’t the judge rule that he can’t use bankruptcy to get out of the debt awarded by the courts here? So what incentive do the families have to let him off the hook, exactly? He has to pay. This is just one more time where Alex Jones can fuck all the way off. That soulless piece of shit can pay up and die in poverty.

    • MagicShel@programming.dev
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      11 months ago

      His leverage is he can earn more money and thus pay them more money if left with his business intact. The question is whether the people need/want money more than justice. I couldn’t blame them if they do, but I hope they hold his feet to the fire until he is nothing but ash.

      • TheActualDevil@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        I believe at least 1 or 2 of them said specifically their goal was to take all his money to remove his ability to create further harmful content.

      • hobbicus@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Hot take: what Alex would do to earn more money to pay the families will cause more damage to the world than paying them nothing and forcibly sewing the gay frog’s mouth shut as payment

      • Daft_ish@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Let me just slander you and your family some more and I’ll pay what ever bill ya wanting.

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    11 months ago

    If he can’t afford to pay, then maybe Alex should have kept his big mouth shut instead of lying about these families and their kids.

    • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      He can afford to pay. He’s living it up, spending to the tune of 100k per month, still spreading misinformation, still going on shows, still making money.

      If any of us owed even a couple hundred bucks, they’d garnish our wages and put us out on the street. But rich people get to keep eating steak every night and living in luxury, while crying poor.

      • Froyn@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        “Those penis pills aren’t going to sell themselves.” – Advertisers on Alex Jones’ shows.

        • martinb@lemmy.sdf.org
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          11 months ago

          He apparently advertises his own products. Shitty white label crap. No advertisers. I do get my info from Knowledge Fight though, so could be incorrect 😀

        • CthuluVoIP@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Then he should pay 100% of his worth and live penniless as a pauper for the rest of his days. Any and all assets and earnings above minimum wage should be garnished for the rest of his life. Let him be an indentured servant.

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            11 months ago

            They should take everything he has and kick him out onto the streets. Then, when he’s out begging for money, there should be a guy following him so that when someone hands him a dollar it is taken from him immediately.

            Let him starve to death on the streets.

        • Classy@sh.itjust.works
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          11 months ago

          I totally agree that Jones should have been punished for the harm he and his platform has caused, but I also felt like the cartoonish amount of money they expected him to pay was venturing into “cruel and unusual” territory.

          I don’t think that it is of any benefit to the people that the courts can throw a $1,500,000,000 bill at an individual and it is not contested or lowered, even if he is an abhorrent human being. $1.5bn is basically a shorthand for “permanent abject poverty” for the vast majority of any person alive today, and we can apparently punish people with this?

          A bill this large should be paid by multinational companies, not citizens.

  • bean@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    There are a lot of pieces of shit out there. This guy is one of the kings of turds.

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        11 months ago

        Despite the judgement, this guy still lives a millionaire’s lifestyle. Consequences are for poor people. Poverty is for poor, unconnected people. You’ll see. The system is set up by and for people like Jones. He has hordes of people working out the loopholes and delays and deals that will let him wriggle out of actually just being fucked by the law.

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    11 months ago

    This piece of shit needs to live the rest of his life on minimum wage. I hope the victims never settle.