The conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has proposed to pay $55m over 10 years to the Sandy Hook families who sued him for spreading lies that the 2012 school massacre in Connecticut, one of the worst in American history, was a hoax.
The offer came after a Texas judge ruled that Jones, the host of Infowars, could not use bankruptcy protection to dodge the nearly $1.5bn he was ordered to pay to the victims’ families, who suffered abuse and threats from believers of Jones’s lies.
According to the 30-page plan submitted on Friday, Jones offered to pay a lump sum of at least $5.5m a year, to be shared among the plaintiffs. The payment would also be accompanied by a percentage of his personal annual revenue, and a slice of Infowars revenue. His debt would be considered satisfied after 10 years.
“This is the first time that Alex Jones has revealed any sort of plan to pay the families back for the harm he caused them,” said Avi Moshenberg, a lawyer for family members who sued Jones in Texas.
In November, the families’ lawyers proposed a settlement of at least $8.5m annually for 10 years.
The new plan filed with the US bankruptcy court for the southern district of Texas requires court approval. Final hearings in the case are scheduled for late February.
Jones filed for bankruptcy last year, but a judge ruled in October that those protections do not apply over findings of “willful and malicious” conduct.
The ruling also allowed the families to demand payment for the rest of Jones’s working life. Accepting the new Jones offer would mean they forfeit that right.
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After 26 people, including children and teachers, died in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, Jones spent years spreading misinformation about the massacre. He claimed the school shooting was a hoax targeting Americans’ firearms and that the victims’ families were “crisis actors”.