“Infowars” host Alex Jones will earn more than half a million dollars in annual salary if the bankruptcy proposal filed by his company Free Speech Systems is allowed.
The 49-year-old conspiracy theorist was ordered last year to pay $1.6 billion to families affected by his lies about the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which killed 26 people. Jones claimed the shooting was staged to garner sympathy for gun control advocates and repeatedly accused those associated with the massacre of being part of an act.
His bankruptcy plan, offered Thursday at a Chapter 11 filing in Houston, would set aside $7 million to $10 million a year for creditors, including his victims, while allowing Jones to earn an annual salary of $520,000.
Jones continues to air his right-wing show in which he spread the misinformation that got him sued, though Jones admitted in an Austin, Texas, court in August that he knows the Sandy Hook shootings were “100% real.”
Jones was sued in Connecticut, where the murders occurred, as well as in Texas, where he broadcasts.
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Witnesses, including Carlee Soto Parisi, whose sister was a teacher slain at Sandy Hook, told Connecticut jurors in September that Jones supporters harassed and threatened them.
“I had no idea why someone would make this up,” Parisi recalled. “I was so confused.”
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Jones once said on his show, “I’ve seen a lot of soap operas and I’ve seen actors and I know when I’m watching a movie and when I’m watching something real.”
He also claimed that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were a hoax, that the coronavirus was “made up,” and that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.
Jones, who is contesting the rulings against him, has said his worth is about $2 million. He also claimed to be “almost out of money” while begging viewers for donations in October.
However, an economist at Jones’ defamation damage hearing in Texas estimated that the bombastic station could be worth as much as $270 million.
with cable news services
