HOUSTON: A US judge on Friday approved the liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ personal assets, setting the stage for the repayment of a fraction of the nearly $1.5 billion in damages he owes families whose loved ones were killed in a school shooting.

But the bankruptcy judge in Houston spared Jones from liquidating the parent company of his far-right website InfoWars — long notorious for peddling misinformation -- in a reprieve that will allow it to remain in business.

The serial provocateur had been ordered to pay the damages for calling a 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in the state of Connecticut — which left 20 first graders and six adults dead — a “hoax.” But Jones subsequently declared personal bankruptcy in Texas, his home state, in 2022, saying his liabilities far exceeded his private assets that the latest court filings show are worth around $9 million.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2024