Alex Jones testified in Waterbury, Connecticut on Sept. 22, 2022, in a civil lawsuit surrounding his original claims that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a “hoax.”
Infowars host Alex Jones hit a double whammy this week as a judge in Connecticut issued two different orders against him that will put severe strain on his personal and business finances.
Waterbury Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis first froze the professional conspiracy theorist’s funds, temporarily barring him from transferring any assets or spending large sums of money over concerns that Jones might be “looting” his own finances and attempting to hide his assets via shell companies or with family members in order to avoid paying sizable judgments issued against him in a slew of recent court cases in multiple states.
Bellis oversaw the Sandy Hook defamation trial that ended last month with jurors assessing nearly $1 billion in damages. Earlier this year, jurors in Texas assessed Jones penalties totaling around $50 million.
“With the exception of ordinary living expenses, the defendant Alex Jones is not to transfer, encumber, dispose, or move his assets out of the United States, until further order of the court,” the judge wrote in a brief, one-page order obtained by Bloomberg.
The plaintiffs, eight families of people killed in the 2012 school massacre and an FBI agent who responded to the shooting, proved that Jones had defamed them and caused them emotional distress for years of baselessly alleging they were “crisis actors” and not victims.
The asset freeze was granted after the plaintiffs requested it from the court. Jones had implored the court not to grant the relief.
“[I]n an uncanny way it would bolster Mr. Jones’s contention that the results of these proceedings were rigged and that the court appeared partial to the plaintiffs,” an attorney for Jones unsuccessfully argued.
The Austin, Texas-based broadcaster has previously called Bellis a “tyrant” and, when pressed by counsel, stood by such remarks.
On Thursday, Bellis hit Jones with more bad news, ordering him and his business, Free Speech Systems, to pay an additional $473 million in punitive damages. The sum total of the damages against him over the Connecticut lawsuits now stands at $1.44 billion.
Again, the plaintiffs in the combined cases had requested such relief.
“Given the largely undisputed evidence of the degree of harm these vulnerable families suffered over a ten-year period, the jury may reasonably have concluded that its compensatory damages assessments were modest, and so may the Court,” the plaintiffs wrote in their successful bid for additional money.
Jones, by way of his attorneys, had taken issue with the request for additional damages by referring to amount he was ordered to pay as both “substantial” and “unprecedented” — and accusing the plaintiffs of asking for over a “trillion” dollars in punitive damages.
“The record clearly supports the plaintiffs’ argument that the defendants’ conduct was intentional and malicious, and certain to cause harm by virtue of their infrastructure, ability to spread content, and massive audience including the infowarriors,” Bellis wrote, in a ruling obtained by the Associated Press.
The wire service also took note of Jones’ reaction on his Thursday show.
“Well, of course I’m laughing at it,” he said. “It’d be like if you sent me a bill for a billion dollars in the mail. Oh man, we got you. It’s all for psychological effect. It’s all the Wizard of Oz.”
Jones is currently in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings in Houston. It is presently unclear what impact, if any, this week’s orders will have on those efforts to reorganize his assets.
[image via screengrab/Law&Crime Network]