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Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars media platform and its assets will be sold piece by piece in auctions this fall to help pay for the more than $1 billion (890 million euros) the notorious right-wing extremist owed to victims’ families must pay for the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

In an order expected to be approved by a federal judge, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez said during a court hearing Tuesday that he would approve the auctions beginning in November.

However, he will first amend a previous order to clarify that the trustee overseeing Jones’ personal bankruptcy case will control all assets of Infowars parent company Free Speech Systems, which Jones currently wholly owns.

The two lawsuits against Jones that resulted in the hefty sentences were filed by families of those killed in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in which a gunman killed 20 children as young as 6 and 7 years and six school staff murdered.

Jones, who enjoyed a huge audience during InfoWars’ heyday, repeatedly called the massacre a hoax orchestrated by “crisis actors” to get more gun control legislation passed.

During two civil trials in Texas and Connecticut, parents and children of many victims testified that they were traumatized by Jones’ plots and the actions of his followers.

The plaintiffs were harassed and threatened by Jones’ true believers, some of whom confronted them personally and said the shooting never happened and their children never existed. A parent said someone threatened to dig up his dead son’s grave.

Jones and his company both filed for bankruptcy protection in 2022 after the families won nearly $1.5 billion (1.34 billion euros) in the two defamation and emotional distress lawsuits.

Jones is appealing the civil jury’s verdict, citing free speech rights and questioning whether the families have proven a connection between his comments and the behavior of the people who harassed and threatened them. He has since admitted that the shooting actually happened.

Despite his impending loss of the company, Jones has vowed to continue his talk shows in other ways, most likely through a new website and social media channels.

He has also suggested that Infowars’ assets could be purchased by his supporters so that he can continue to host his show as an employee under the Infowars brand in their hometown of Austin, Texas.

“It’s abundantly clear that Free Speech Systems’ assets, the website, the equipment, the shopping cart and all of that can be sold,” Jones said in a recent broadcast. “And they know full well that there are a lot of patriotic buyers, and then the operation can be more relaxed.”

Disassembled

If approved, the sell-off order would put Infowars’ intellectual property up for auction on November 13, including its trademarks, copyrighted materials, social media accounts and websites.

Jones’ personal social media pages, including his account on the social platform X, which has 2.8 million followers, would not be taken into account.

However, Jones’ bankruptcy trustee, Christopher Murray, said Tuesday that he may soon seek court approval to also liquidate Jones’ personal social media accounts and his other intellectual property.

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The Sandy Hook families, who won the Connecticut lawsuit, want Jones to lose his personal social media accounts. Their lawyers are also demanding that the families receive a portion of any future earnings from Jones to help pay off his debts.

Christopher Mattei, an attorney for the Sandy Hook families, said the judge’s signing of the auction order was “a significant step forward” in the family’s efforts to make Jones pay for the consequences of the fraud he fueled.

“Alex Jones will no longer own or control the company he built,” Mattei said in a statement Tuesday. “This brings the families closer to their goal of holding him accountable for the harm he caused.”

The rest of Infowars’ assets, including computers, video cameras and other studio equipment, would be sold at a later auction.

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Payout

It’s unclear how much money could be raised by selling Infowars and Jones’ assets – or how much of that money the Sandy Hook families would receive.

First in line for payment are the lawyers, financial experts and others who worked on Jones’ bankruptcy cases and who collectively racked up millions of dollars in fees and expenses.

Jones has made millions of dollars over the years selling nutritional supplements, clothing, survival gear, books and other items, which he promotes on his shows that air on the Internet and dozens of radio stations.

One remaining dispute in the bankruptcy case is whether Free Speech Systems owes tens of millions of dollars to another Jones-owned company, PQPR Holdings Limited.

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While Free Speech Systems purchases nutritional supplements from PQPR to sell on the Infowars website, PQPR claims that payments are still owed on many of the purchases and has filed liens. Sandy Hook lawyers claim the debt is fake.

If the debt is found to be legitimate, it could reduce the amount the Sandy Hook families ultimately receive from the liquidations.