Lawyers for several families of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting are criticizing Alex Jones' personal spending as they seek nearly $1.5 billion they won in lawsuits against the Infowars host.
People are kept in prison without a conviction, for not affording bail. Owing a thousand times the lifetime earnings of other people should at the very least mean all your accounts and holdings are frozen, and you can't spend anything without getting independent approval every time.
The settlement payout is on hold pending his bankruptcy case is why they haven't done something like this. However, lawyers for the families are in fact trying to have his assets placed in a trust or have the bankruptcy case cancelled outright because of his spending. By design it's a slow, complicated process where Jones has lots of legal (and illegal) avenues to delay paying. Fortunately Jones is so stupid and outlandish that he's likely hurting his own case so I wouldn't be surprised if a judge slaps him with more severe sanctions.
If it had been a criminal defamation case, then it would be criminally enforcable... but all this really means is "a judge ruled you need to pay" and if you don't pay, then you could sue them again for not paying, and it just goes in a loop over and over again. I have a friend whose family has been in a loop like this in civil court over a bad real estate venture for decades with someone who simply ignores the rulings.
It hangs over the head of the person who did it, but in the end it's mostly just a "it's on your permanent record" kind of stain which can stop people from working with you and damage your personal life, but it's not like the kind of people who would work with Alex Jones don't know who they're working with.
Seems to me that failing to pay a proper court ordered civil case should be a crime, at least in the case where you're just ignoring the court order, not where you can't actually pay.
which is why people want to be rich. it's way bigger benefit than the money.
people think about all the maga types that are 'one day millionaires'. nah, it's not about being rich for money, it's about they back a guy who does the stuff they wish they could personally do. like be rabidly racist in public without consequence
It's why these rich people back the GOP. The tax breaks are real but the consequences of social policies won't affect them when they can fly wherever, put their kids in private schools and escape any social damage.
One of the people he owes millions of dollars to, Erica Lafferty, had to do a Kickstarter for a cancer treatment just so she has a better chance of not fucking dying. She still hasn't seen a dime from Alex "I'm the Debil" Jones.
They somehow wrote in monthly "spousal maintenance" or similar payments in the prenup. It's weird, but legal and enforceable in many states.
Jones probably chooses to try and keep some money in the family by sending it to his wife. I don't really know if there's a debtor hierarchy for this sort of thing, but until somebody challenges it, he's going to keep doing it.
I'd like to see what those people spend all that money on.
I mean I luckily don't often have trouble making ends meet, but apart from buying a place to live in, I don't know how they can spend that much. I currently have to spend a lot because of renovation work, but I suspect that's not the reason. In normal times, my "big" spends would be... maybe big home appliances, or vacations (that's a European thing)... If I went really wild, I could maybe conceive of spending... 15 000€ in a month (not that I could really afford it, but at least I could find stuff to do it).
Merriam-Webster needs to do a fund raiser where if people donate up to some set goal they will change the entry "shit" to Shit (n) - : bodily waste discharged through the anus; Usage - "Alex Jones is a real piece of shit"
Then give all the money raised to these families and gun control advocacy groups.
Wait, I'm out of the loop. A collection of people won a 1.5 billion dollar lawsuit over something posted on the internet the they did not like? I barely know who Alex Jones is (good thing apparently) but still.
Just so we are on the same page, what exactly is he expected to do? He doesnt even have 1/50 of that amount in any form. Even if he sayys everything he owns and liquidated everything he wont have anywhere near of that. He is abusing credit lines right now, i think i read he owes like 80 different creditors 100k or something. He will definitely run out of string but what is he expected to do when he does? He is probably gonna just go to jail and not pay anything.
Transfer his shares/ownership over to the victims if he can't liquidate it.
He should not be able to sped $93,000 while not giving a dime to his victims. He wouldn't be able to spend anything above the poverty level until he pays it off in a just world.
What he's supposed to do is live with reasonable expenses and pay whatever he can. What he's doing instead is increasing his expenditure so he has nothing left to give them. In fact, he does have money to pay them, he's just trying to use it for himself first instead.
Court should seize all his assets and sell them. Then seize all income. The court can then grant him a stipend for reasonable living expenses. Since he's obviously committing fraud and refusing to pay court ordered fines. People go to prison for less.
He was already hiding assets because his ex wife was suing for full custody and would wind up with substantial child support. Her lawyers argued that he was batshit and shouldn't be around the kids. His lawyers argued it was all just an act. Then he got on the stand and doubled down on his "act" and acted batshit.
It's also been known that he's been hiding assets since due to this ruling since early 2022.
So what do I expect? I expect us to stop buying the bullshit "plausible deniability" angles these crooks keep thinking up. Plenty of people owe restitution that they can never hope to pay back. They still owe the money and are expected to make reasonable payments, to not artificially limit their income, and to not bump up their expenses unnecessarily. If they can't do that, then the court can and should garnish their accounts above a set budget.
He will most certainly end up paying for the rest of his life but what I mean is what it that is expected here. They can seize his assets but its not enough, if they take away his company he will never be able to pay it off.
Well maybe he should have thought of that first, before running his mouth like the wheezing piece of sweaty shit he is and victimizing innocent people in the process who were already suffering.
You know, I will literally never ever understand standing up for someone like this. I have an elderly far right trumper family member who barely survives on fucking social security who tries to defend Bezos and Musk this way. "Oh BuT iTs NoT lIqUiD." Who gives a shit?! Fuck all of them.
If he managed to spend that much in a month on himself and his wife, he can manage to spend that much on his victims. Who gives a flying fuck where it comes from? Why the fuck would you? Is it his victims' fault he has to declare bankruptcy and rely on lines of credit (supposedly)? Of course not. So he can take out more and more and more lines of credit to pay them. It's not that hard.
Interesting question. I'm thinking what he should have done was not fuck these folks over for years, and then ignore a court order to pay them. Fuck the lenders, they knew who they were lending to.
I'm really not interested in giving this fucker any more thought than that. I have my own bills to worry over (and I'll actually get in trouble for ignoring them). He made this shit sandwich for himself, he can have it. Actually, he shouldn't have it, and it should be handed over to the victims, while his assets are frozen/liquidated for eternity.