{"id":310716,"date":"2026-05-27T12:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T12:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/310716\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T12:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T12:23:11","slug":"alex-jones-faces-scrutiny-in-austin-as-texas-court-weighs-infowars-net-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/310716\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Jones faces scrutiny in Austin as Texas court weighs Infowars net worth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Attorneys for the parent company of\u00a0Infowars and the conspiracy-peddling media platform\u2019s founder Alex Jones are back in state court fighting collection efforts<\/a> in the case stemming from his lies that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a government hoax.<\/p>\n

Jones, who was found liable for defamation after refusing to produce financial documents and comply with other court orders, owes nearly $1.5 billion to the families of the victims of the 2012 mass shooting, whom he called crisis actors in a staged shooting.<\/p>\n

A hearing Tuesday to determine the net worth of Austin-based Infowars parent company Free Speech Systems\u00a0LLC marked the latest legal wrangling in the state court case. The company\u2019s value will be used to determine how much Jones should be ordered to pay in a bond to continue an appeal<\/a> and effectively hold off efforts for his victims to begin collecting on a $50 million judgment in the Texas case.<\/p>\n

AT ISSUE: Judge rejects Alex Jones\u2019 bid to shield Infowars from potential Onion deal<\/a><\/p>\n

If he is allowed to maintain his appeal with little or no bond, Jones could further delay efforts to sell or license Infowars assets to benefit the Sandy Hook families. He is hoping to secure a low bond amount by depicting the company as financially underwater, owing more in liabilities than it it\u2019s worth.<\/p>\n

From the bench Tuesday, state District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble referred to Jones\u2019 record of disregard for court orders and earlier failures to provide financial documentation.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistory tells me your client is not trustworthy or credible on this ground in particular,\u201d she told Free Speech Systems\u2019 attorney. Jones was not in the courtroom.<\/p>\n

Despite the high-dollar default defamation judgments in late 2021 in cases brought in Texas and Connecticut, the Sandy Hook families have received no payments. That\u2019s due in part to Jones and his attorneys peppering federal, bankruptcy and state courts with filings in an effort to retain control of the\u00a0websites and brands.<\/p>\n

Jones has exhausted all his appeals in Connecticut and families of the victims say the current moves in Texas amount to him continuing to delay paying the money they\u2019re due.<\/p>\n

\u2018Abject\u00a0disrespect for the proceedings,\u2019 families\u2019 attorney says<\/p>\n

Mark Bankston, attorney for the Texas families, objected to Free Speech Systems offering evidence at all, arguing that it was untimely, that he was not given enough time to review the documents and that it violated an earlier court order preventing such evidence. He also echoed the judge\u2019s concerns about the information\u2019s authenticity and the credibility of Jones and Free Speech Systems on such matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been abject disrespect for the proceedings and a pervasive sense, even by counsel\u00a0\u2014 perhaps especially by counsel\u00a0\u2014 that Jones does not have to follow the rules,\u201d Bankston said.<\/p>\n

\"Attorney<\/p>\n

Attorney Mark Bankston, who represents Texas Sandy Hook families, appears last month during a hearing in state District Court on a proposed licensing agreement for The Onion to operate Alex Jones\u2019 Infowars media platform as satire. (Mikala Compton\/Austin American-Statesman)<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s hearing was no different, he said, with the company and Jones again flouting court norms by \u201cdumping\u201d a 1,800-page expert\u2019s report less than a business day before the hearing. Bankston said it\u2019s a tactic he has seen a dozen times in the case.<\/p>\n

He also questioned how he could be expected to respond with his own expert or to respond under the tight timeline for a decision, which\u00a0the 3rd Court of Appeals said must be completed\u00a0by Friday.<\/p>\n

MORE CONSPIRACIES: Housing development sues Alex Jones after\u00a0Infowars segment tied it to cartels<\/a><\/p>\n

Guerra Gamble seemed inclined to agree but stopped short of shutting down the hearing.<\/p>\n

Attorney Ben Brooks, representing Free Speech Systems, said the judge had no choice but to hear the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Court of Appeals remanded to you to take evidence and make findings, and there was a specific reference to current circumstances,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jones\u2019 appeal came after\u00a0Guerra Gamble last year empowered a court-appointed receiver to seize and sell Free Speech Systems assets to begin paying the judgments.<\/p>\n

Battle over sale of Infowars, intellectual property<\/p>\n

Receiver Greg\u00a0Milligan, who was in court Tuesday, attempted to license the company\u2019s trademark, domain and intellectual property to the satirical news brandThe Onion last month to create a revenue stream for the victims. Jones appealed and the plan was blocked by the 3rd Court of Appeals, which issued a stay to prevent collections while questions about Jones\u2019 bankruptcy case\u00a0\u2014 which he filed in late 2022 in Houston after losing the defamation cases\u00a0\u2014 and the bond issue exist. <\/p>\n

Jones also appealed the bankruptcy court\u2019s ruling separating the assets of\u00a0Free Speech Systems\u00a0from his personal estate, which is currently protected from sale. Earlier this month, though, U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal threw out that appeal, saying Jones does not own Free Speech Systems and that it was not protected by the stay on his personal bankruptcy estate.<\/p>\n

The families who won the Connecticut judgment asked the Supreme Court of Texas to take up the case earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Questions raised about Jones\u2019 documentation<\/p>\n

Much of the controversy around the Texas case, and the appellate court\u2019s interest in it, was due to Guerra Gamble\u2019s decision to impose a \u201cdeath penalty sanction\u201d of default judgment on Jones over his discovery violations, which she said were made in \u201cflagrant bad faith and callous disregard.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t clear what information presented in the hearing would be used by the judge\u00a0to determine the amount of the bond. Several of the exhibits were found inadmissible but will be sent to the 3rd Court of Appeals after the hearing.<\/p>\n

Free\u00a0Speech Systems\u2019\u00a0expert Terry Lloyd, a certified public accountant, testified that Free Speech Systems had a net worth of negative $1.35 billion and current accounts of about $106,000.<\/p>\n

Attorneys for the families questioned the source of those figures, which appeared to come only from Free Speech Systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can say trust but verify, but there\u2019s been no verify here,\u201d Bankston said.<\/p>\n

He also questioned how any expert analysis could be conducted if, as plaintiffs have alleged in other court documents, money had been siphoned off from the company illegally.<\/p>\n

Guerra Gamble rejected some Free Speech Systems exhibits, including alleged bank statements, saying it wasn\u2019t clear where they were from. No one with personal knowledge of the accounts was provided to validate the information.<\/p>\n

Bankston argued the entirety of the testimony and report should be rejected for the same reason.<\/p>\n

Attorneys said a decision is expected by the end of the week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Attorneys for the parent company of\u00a0Infowars and the conspiracy-peddling media platform\u2019s founder Alex Jones are back in state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[97013,132,11297,134,133,76924,112030,25010,1931,112027,97014,112029,112026,112028,27],"class_list":["post-310716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-alex-jones","tag-austin","tag-austin-american-statesman","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-bankruptcy-court","tag-court-orders","tag-district-court","tag-free-speech","tag-free-speech-systems","tag-infowars","tag-maya-guerra-gamble","tag-sandy-hook-families","tag-state-court","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}