The far-right US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who was sentenced to almost $1.5 billion in damages for spreading false allegations about a school massacre, has filed for personal bankruptcy. The 48-year-old filed the application with a bankruptcy court in the state of Texas on Friday.
Jones recently caused a stir with an interview with rapper Kanye West, in which he expressed sympathy for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
False claims about the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting
The radio host and founder of the right-wing website “Infowars” has been in several lawsuits for damages totaling almost $1.5 billion (more than 1.4 billion euros) was sentenced. Among other things, he owes the money to several parents whose children were killed in the massacre.
Jones had claimed for years that the Newtown, Connecticut, school massacre never happened. Rather, it was faked in order to enforce a tightening of gun laws.
Jones is considered a supporter of Donald Trump
Jones, who is very influential in radical right-wing circles, has earned a lot of money and a large circle of supporters by spreading conspiracy theories. Jones is known as a supporter of former US President Donald Trump.
Jones, for example, appropriated Trump’s false claim that the incumbent’s loss to current President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election was due to massive fraud.
Scandalous interview with Kanye West
In the personal bankruptcy filing, Jones states that he has assets of between $1 million and $10 million. He puts his debts at between one and ten billion dollars and the number of his creditors at between 50 and 99. “Infowars” had already filed for bankruptcy in April. His media company Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy in July.
But Jones is still very active. On Thursday, the conspiracy theorist interviewed rapper Kanye West, aka Ye, who has fallen into disrepute for anti-Semitic statements. The musician caused outrage with statements like “I like Hitler” and “I love Nazis”.
Because West later showed a picture of a Star of David crossed with a swastika on Twitter, his user account was blocked by the short message service. (AFP)