Alex Jones files for bankruptcy after juries award Sandy Hook parents almost $1.5 billion

InfoWars founder Alex Jones speaks to a crowd over a loudspeaker from his InfoWars vehicle as hundreds attended a “Re-Open America” protest near the Texas Capitol in Austin in 2020. Jones filed for bankruptcy on Friday, Dec. 2, 2022. (Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune)

InfoWars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has filed for bankruptcy in a Texas court after being ordered by multiple courts to pay almost $1.5 billion in total damages to the families of Sandy Hook shooting victims.

The Texas-based media personality with an influential reach spent years falsely calling the 2012 school shooting that killed 20 elementary school students and six adults in Connecticut a hoax. His websites and social media received about 1.4 million daily average visits before major platforms like YouTube and Facebook removed his content in August 2018, according to the New York Times. His false claims about the shooting prompted many of his listeners to harass the families of shooting victims.