Infowars founder Alex Jones arrives to speak to the media after appearing at his Sandy Hook defamation trial at Connecticut Superior Court in Waterbury, Connecticut, U.S., October 4, 2022.
NEW YORK, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones cannot use his personal bankruptcy to escape paying at least $1.1 billion in defamation damages stemming from his repeated lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school massacre, a U.S. bankruptcy judge ruled Thursday.
Courts in Connecticut and Texas have already ruled that Jones intentionally defamed relatives of school children killed in the mass shooting, and they have ordered Jones to pay $1.5 billion in damages.
Lopez ruled that more than $1.1 billion of those verdicts, awarded for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress, cannot be wiped away in bankruptcy.
Lopez said he will hold a trial to sort out the precise amount of the damages that could be discharged.
Attorneys for Jones and the Sandy Hook families did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jones and his media company, Free Speech Systems, filed for bankruptcy protection in December and July last year, respectively. »
