Alex Jones files for bankruptcy after Sandy Hook verdict, order to pay $965 million in damages
According to the families of the Sandy Hook victims, they received numerous harassment after Jones perpetrated the lie that the massacre was a hoax
InfoWars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on Friday filed for personal bankruptcy, an expected move after he was ordered earlier this year to pay at least $965 million in damages to the relatives of those killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary school massacre.
Jones filed a voluntary petition under Chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, according to CNBC.
"Like every other cowardly move Alex Jones has made, this bankruptcy will not work," the plaintiffs' attorneys said in response.
Twenty children and six staff members were fatally shot at the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012.
Jones' lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The settlement came with a Connecticut jury in October siding with the plaintiffs – the relatives and an FBI agent who responded to the scene – who argued they were tormented by Jones' followers who believed his lies about the shooting massacre being a hoax perpetuated by the government to take away Americans' guns.
The families said they were harassed and threatened since the shooting, according to ABC News.
Jones was ordered to pay nearly $50 million in a related case decided in August.