To the editor:
I have been reading a lot of comments recently on the judgment against Alex Jones in Texas for around $5 million for lying about the murders of the schoolchildren and teachers at Sandy Hook elementary school 10 years ago. This judgment is only the beginning, as there are two more cases, one in Texas and one in Connecticut with nine individual plaintiffs. We anticipate that the damages, both compensatory and punitive, will be in excess of $300 million.
That said, I don’t think that Jones will be silenced, nor will conspiracy theorists of his ilk. They will be a little more careful, but Americans (and all of us), seem to revel in this junk. Who would have believed that the Republican Party has been energized by QAnon, which based its success on claiming that the Clintons and others were running a pedophile ring out of a pizza parlor in Washington?
The conclusion of these cases may well be more satisfying than imaginable. These future judgments will necessitate that Jones personally, as well as his related companies and certain business partners, will be forced to declare bankruptcy. This means that there will be a federal bankruptcy judge supervising the gathering and dispersal of the assets of the bankrupt to the creditors.
Judging from Jones’ conduct to date, it is almost a given that he has already fraudulently transferred assets prior to the recent judgment. In addition, as we have seen throughout his three law suits, Jones seems incapable of conforming to court orders or the rules of discovery. My belief is that he will not properly list all his assets in his bankruptcy and will regularly commit acts which may result in charges of criminal bankruptcy fraud. Whether that occurs or not, the end result will be that the creditors will have liens on his property to be sold to pay his debts, but most ironic will be court-imposed levies on his future income. In other words, the more he makes, the more his victims will receive from the supplements and equipment he sells to his true believers.
When I first met the family plaintiffs in the Connecticut case, I was amazed how stalwart they were in insisting on changes in the gun laws, and in society as a whole, so that the carnage they suffered would not be repeated. They will have substantial funds to assist in those campaigns.
Stephen Cohen
Egremont
