Alex Jones can’t avoid Sandy Hook verdicts in bankruptcy, judge says

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NEW YORK (Reuters) -Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones cannot use his personal bankruptcy to escape paying defamation verdicts stemming from his repeated lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school massacre, a U.S. bankruptcy judge ruled Thursday.

Bankruptcy can be used to wipe out debts and legal judgments, but not if they result from “willful or malicious injury” caused by the debtor, according to a decision by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston, Texas.

Courts in Connecticut and Texas have already ruled that Jones intentionally defamed relatives of schoolchildren killed in the massacre, and they have ordered Jones to pay $1.5 billion in damages.

Lopez ruled that the debts cannot be wholly discharged, but he left open the possibility they could be reduced. It was not clear how much of the damages awards were attributed to “willful” and “malicious” lies, and how much could be instead attributed to merely “reckless” conduct, Lopez wrote.