Infowars Receives More Bad News From Supreme Court
Talia Jane
Mon, June 3, 2024 at 11:39 AM CDT·1 min read
Link:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/infowars-receives-more-bad-news-163947794.html
Expect more
crocodile tears from
Alex Jones: Right-wing conspiracy theorist and Alex Jones underling
Owen Shroyer lost his petition for the Supreme Court to overturn the conviction for his participation in the January 6 Capitol riot on Monday,
according to Supreme Court documents reviewed by Politico reporter Kyle Cheney.
Tweet screenshot - Kyle Cheney
Shroyer, who hosts a show on far-right website Infowars, was originally sentenced to a mere
60 days in federal prison for
misdemeanor charges of entering restricted grounds and
leading the mob in chants outside the U.S. Capitol ahead of the January 6 Capitol riot—charges to which he
pleaded guilty. Prior to January 6, Shroyer used the once-sizable Infowars platform to spew violent, inciting rhetoric and election-denialist propaganda to hundreds of thousands of people.
Shroyer’s gambit sought to grift on his misdemeanor, claiming in videos that his Supreme Court appeal was a test of whether the Supreme Court supports “free speech,” which in Shroyer’s case is more commonly known as “
trespassing.”
Shroyer filed a writ of certiorari, a type of
petition sent to the Supreme Court as a last-ditch effort to appeal a lower court’s ruling. As Shroyer was sentenced by a federal court and not a state court, his appeal request went directly to the highest court in the country. Technically, any guilty verdict of a criminal case can file an appeal—but pleading guilty,
as Shroyer did, certainly doesn’t help.
The Supreme Court’s denial of Shroyer’s petition suggests other convicted Capitol rioters who may be inclined to attempt to submit gimmicky appeals to the Supreme Court will find themselves similarly rejected.
Up next
Alex Jones Insists Those Were Real Tears During His Meltdown Over Infowars Shutdown
Amanda Yen
Mon, June 3, 2024 at 12:05 PM CDT·2 min read
69
YouTube/InfoWars
Conspiracy theorist and
InfoWars host
Alex Jones on Monday defended his sobbing Saturday rant in which he claimed he was being “targeted for abuse” with the imminent shutdown of his media company.
During the
InfoWars live taping on Monday, Jones insisted his Saturday meltdown was not a “publicity stunt” but a genuine cry of anger and frustration.
“The art was taken off the walls, employees took their stuff home, there were tears,” Jones said. He was considerably more subdued than in Saturday’s emergency session, in which he howled about supposed “Deep State” actors shutting down his operation and begged listeners to buy his supplements to support him.
Jones’ Monday comments came in reaction to an emergency motion filed Sunday by the families of the victims of the
Sandy Hook massacre, who asked a
Texas bankruptcy court judge to liquidate
Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, instead of allowing Jones to reorganize it. The families are seeking $1.5 billion in damages from Jones over his false claims that the 2012 elementary school shooting was a hoax.
In dour tones on Monday, Jones rambled about his money woes and claimed he was running out of options to save his platform.
“I’m out of bullets,” he said—a peculiar choice of words, given his company is being shuttered by the families of
gun violence victims. “I’m out of money, and my dad’s out of money, and he would help me,” Jones lamented. “I’m out of options, and that’s where we are.”
However, Jones has been dubbed a serial exaggerator and “performance artist” by his own lawyers in the past. Randall Wilhite, who represented Jones when his ex-wife Kelly Jones sued to get custody of their children, said at a pretrial hearing that the media personality was just “playing a character” on his show.
According to recent bankruptcy filing statements, Jones holds about $9 million in personal assets, the Associated Press reported.
Jones was
ordered to pay $1.5 billion to the families of Sandy Hook victims who sued him, claiming that they were subject to unnecessary, traumatizing, and persistent harassment by Jones’ followers who readily took up the junk hoax theory.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.
Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
Up next
Sandy Hook relatives ask bankruptcy judge to liquidate Alex Jones company
Edward Helmore
Mon, June 3, 2024 at 1:41 PM CDT·3 min read
2
Alex Jones, the far-right conspiracy theorist, in this 2018 photograph. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
Relatives of the
Sandy Hook elementary school victims who won more than $1.5bn against the far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones over his false claim that the 2012 mass shooting was a hoax to force Americans to accept gun control are demanding his businesses be liquidated.
In a letter to a bankruptcy court judge on Sunday, relatives of those killed in the shooting, which left 20 children and six educators dead, requested the rejection of Jones’s petition to financially reorganize his company, which includes Infowars.
The request is the subject of a hearing scheduled in Houston on Monday.
Lawyers for the families said Jones’s Free Speech Systems company has “no prospect” of getting a reorganization plan approved and has “failed to demonstrate any hope of beginning to satisfy” the judgment against it.
If granted, the families may be less likely to have the ability to collect on the judgment – but Jones would be forced to sell most of what he owns, including his company and its assets, though he could keep his home and other personal belongings, according to
the Associated Press.
In a tearful, four-hour
“emergency broadcast” over the weekend, Jones said there was a conspiracy against him, and that he expected Infowars to be shut down in the next month or two.
“There’s really no avenue out of this,” Jones said. “I’m kind of in the bunker here. And don’t worry. I’ll come back. The enemy can’t help but do this attack.”
A day earlier, Jones – who built up a profitable business on the back of his web-based show selling products such as Super Male Vitality supplements, Lung Cleanse Plus Spray and Prostagard pills, sounded more combative.
“At the end of the day, we’re going to beat these people,” he said. “I’m not trying to be dramatic here, but it’s been a hard fight. These people hate our children.”
Jones and his company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after victims’ families won lawsuits in Texas and Connecticut for defamation and emotional distress over his claims that the mass shooting was fake and staged in order to get tougher gun restrictions passed.
Within hours of the mass shooting, perpetrated by 20-year-old Adam Lanza, Jones was on air describing the killings as a “false flag” operation, the grieving families as crisis actors, and their children as either imaginary or still alive. Some parents said they were recognized in the street and told to their faces that their grief was a lie. Some testified at trial that they had been harassed and threatened by Jones’s followers.
In financial statements to the court, Jones said he was worth about $9m in assets, including his $2.6m Texas home near Austin. He estimated his living expenses at $69,000 for April, including about $16,500 for costs associated with his home.
In the same month, Free Speech Systems – Infowars’ parent company, which employs 44 people – said it made $3.2m in April from selling dietary supplements, clothing and other items. The company said it ran $1.9m in expenses.
Free Speech Systems has offered to pay the judgment at $7m to $10m annually. But the families countered with a proposal that Jones liquidate his assets, or pay them at least $8.5m annually for 10 years – plus 50% of any income over $9m.
