In Bankruptcy, Alex Jones Battles for $1.3M Salary

He asks judge to order Infowars' parent firm to go back to paying him $54K biweekly, up from $20K
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 20, 2022 12:53 PM CST
In Bankruptcy, Alex Jones Battles for $1.3M Salary
Infowars founder Alex Jones appears in court to testify during the Sandy Hook defamation damages trial in Waterbury, Connecticut, on Sept. 22.   (Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media Group via AP, Pool, File)

A salary of $10,000 a week isn't enough for a bankrupt Alex Jones, who has asked a judge for almost three times that amount. The Infowars host on Monday requested that federal bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez restore the $1.3 million annual salary he received from Infowars' parent company Free Speech Systems before it declared bankruptcy in July. Jones—who filed for bankruptcy himself after he and the company were ordered to pay a combined $1.5 billion in damages to families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre for long claiming that the mass shooting was a hoax—has been receiving a $20,000 biweekly salary, down from $54,000, since then, per the AP.

This is "a severe reduction from the salary Jones is due under [contract]," Jones said in the filing, per Bloomberg. An attorney for the victims' families opposed the salary request. Lopez said he was "open to increasing" Jones' pay, but he didn't make a final decision, per Reuters. He did, however, lift a stay that prevented cases against Jones by victims' families from moving forward, a move his lawyers had agreed to, per the AP. However, the families aren't able yet to pursue collection efforts. Jones has said he's unable to pay the amounts owed, claiming less than $12 million in assets, per Bloomberg. He's also seeking reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses related to Infowars.

Attorneys for Free Speech Systems said the company has $1.8 million in cash, with monthly revenue at $1.9 million—down from up to $7 million before the bankruptcy filing, per Reuters. "We've really got to get back to that level of production to make this a profitable company and try to pay back our creditors," said Jones' attorney Vickie Driver. Lopez is expected to revisit the salary issue at a hearing in January, which will precede a third trial over Jones' comments on Sandy Hook. Per the Guardian, he might eventually be forced to sign over his future earnings to the families, who Bloomberg reports are now investigating some $10 million in donations Jones received after the rulings. (More Alex Jones stories.)

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