Here are some of the other legal challenges Jones and his company are now facing.
TEXAS, CONN
Jones faces a separate trial for damages in the same Austin court for defaming the family of another victim of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. His attorney said Friday that the case is on hold because of his company’s bankruptcy. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Jones is set to go on trial to decide damages in a separate case in Waterbury, Conn., after he was found guilty by default of defaming the families of several Sandy Hook victims with lies about the shooting that killed 20 children and six staff members in Newtown, Conn. Connecticut. . Jones had called the shooting a hoax by the US government, staged using crisis actors to serve as a pretext for disarming Americans. He has since acknowledged that the massacre was real. The Connecticut trial, which had been scheduled to begin in September, was put on hold after Jones’ company, Free Speech Systems LLC, filed for bankruptcy last week. Jones said during Monday’s episode of Infowars that the filing will help the company stay on the air while it appeals.
TEXAS BANKRUPTCY
In the bankruptcy case, Sandy Hook’s parents told a Houston judge this week that Jones can continue to draw money from Free Speech Systems, the parent company of the far-right website Infowars, while using the bankruptcy case to avoid payment of defamation judgments. cases. The families said Jones took $62 million from Free Speech Systems while loading it with $65 million in “fabricated” debt to PQPR Holdings, a company owned by Jones and his parents. They asked the bankruptcy court to prevent Free Speech Systems from sending money to Jones or his companies until they have had a chance to get to the bottom of Infowars’ finances.
POSSIBLE CHARGE OF FALSE ECONOMY
A lawyer for the plaintiffs in the Texas trial on Wednesday revealed that Federico Andino Reynal, Jones’ attorney, had accidentally sent him a file containing two years of Jones’ text messages, along with trial strategy notes and medical records. Jones claimed he searched his phone for messages about Sandy Hook and never found any. He denied on the witness stand that he had lied, but the revelation raised the possibility that Jones could be charged with perjury, a felony. Judge Maya Guerra Gamble warned Jones on Tuesday that he had not been truthful during his testimony when he said he was bankrupt and had complied with plaintiffs’ requests for information before trial. Defense attorneys in Texas said perjury prosecutions are rare, particularly for conduct in a civil case.
LAWYER IMPLICATIONS
The judge in the Connecticut case on Thursday ordered Reynal and another attorney for Jones to appear at hearings this month on whether they should face sanctions for the unauthorized release of the plaintiffs’ medical information, apparently in connection with the disclosure of the Jones Texas records. . Reynal did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.
US CAPITOL ATTACK CAPTION
The revelation could also have implications for a US House of Representatives committee’s investigation into the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump. Mark Bankston, a lawyer for the parents in the Texas defamation case, said in court Thursday that the commission asked him to turn over the text files it received. Jones marched with supporters on Capitol Hill the day of the riot, but has not been charged with a crime in connection with it. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Jack Queen and Dietrich Knauth in New York. Editing by Will Dunham, David Bario and Leslie Adler Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
