No, Alex Jones, *Morally* Bankrupt Doesn't Count!
This week isn't any better for the beloved broadcaster than last!
This morning, Alex Jones's parents, David and Carol Jones, entered an appearance in the bankruptcy case filed by Free Speech Systems (FSS), the parent company of Jones's Infowars network. David Jones, a dentist who bankrolled his son's foray into broadcasting by sponsoring his first radio show, has long been involved in managing Infowars. And now he's coming into this bankruptcy as a "creditor."
According to the accountant shepherding Infowars through bankruptcy, David manages PQPR Holdings Limited, a Nevada LLC. PQPR sells vitamins and supplements, like Super Male Vitality, Super Female Vitality, and of course Z Shield. Except for a long time, PQPR just gave them away to Infowars, which sold them on to Jones's deranged listeners and pocketed the proceeds. But then in 2020 PQPR remembered that it should probably send along a bill for all those pills, so in 2020, FSS executed a promissory note for $30 million in favor of PQPR. And in 2021, it executed a second note for $25 million.
Also in 2021, Alex Jones and FSS's egregious refusal to cooperate with discovery netted them "death penalty sanctions" in the form of default judgments in Sandy Hook defamation suits in both Connecticut and Texas, virtually ensuring that Jones and the company would be faced with tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
Coincidence? Probably not!
Because PQPR isn't just managed by Jones's dad. The company is wholly owned by Alex, David, and Carol Jones. So when FSS executed those notes in 2020 and 2021, it was effectively shifting every penny of profit that Infowars earns into the family's own pockets. And because the notes rendered the company insolvent — at least on paper — they allowed FSS to seek protection from the bankruptcy court while ensuring that the Jones family are prioritized creditors who will get paid first. Even better, the bankruptcy has the immediate effect of staying all legal proceedings, ensuring that the remaining two Sandy Hook cases, plus one brought by a man falsely accused of being the Parkland school shooter, won't go to trial as scheduled in the next 10 weeks.
Neat trick, huh?
Well, "neat" if it works. The Texas plaintiffs contested the promissory notes in a state lawsuit under the Texas Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (TUFTA), and they and the Connecticut plaintiffs are doing their damnedest to convince US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez not to let Jones run this rope-a-dope on his creditors.
In the meantime, Jones's lawyers are dealing with the fallout from their massive discovery fuck up in Texas last week.
Remember that batshit moment when Heslin and Lewis's attorney Mark Bankston told Alex Jones on the witness stand that his lawyer Andino Reynal had "messed up" by putting a digital image of Jones's phone in a shared discovery Dropbox?
“Attorney Mark Bankston told #AlexJones that his attorney messed up and sent him Jones' entire cell phone history. "Did you know that your lawyers messed up and sent me your entire cell phone texting history 12 days ago?" Bankston asked. "You know what perjury is right?"”
— Law&Crime Network (@Law&Crime Network) 1659546909
And instead of going through the statutory requirements to claw it back, Reynal just messaged them saying "Please disregard." In his defense, the statute would have required him to specify which of the contents were privileged and confidential, essentially flagging for the plaintiffs' counsel that the phone was full of documents and communications which should have been turned over years ago during discovery and which the defendants claimed did not exist. Ooopsie!
Included among the documents were personal medical records of the Connecticut plaintiffs, which Bankston told the court he immediately destroyed. But that's not an explanation for how sensitive, personal documents came to be on Jones's phone. Nor does it excuse Reynal's cavalier disclosure of them to third parties, and his subsequent lack of effort to get them back. Texas Judge Maya Guerra Gamble gave Reynal an opportunity to designate certain documents as privileged or confidential, and his response was limited to designating certain communications as attorney-client privileged — he did nothing to protect the medical records.
This did not impress Connecticut Judge Barbara Bellis, who ordered Reynal and Jones's longtime attorney Norm Pattis to get themselves into her courtroom and explain what the hell was going on and why she was having to hear about it on the news. This afternoon, Pattis, who is what's euphemistically described as a colorful character , appeared on a preliminary call where Judge Bellis said she was "gravely concerned" and wanted some answers by next week, when Reynal is due in her courtroom to clarify "whether he should be referred to disciplinary authorities or sanctioned by the court directly."
OUCH.
And, PS, Bankston handed the contents of the phone — minus the medical records — over to the House January 6 Select Committee. He also told The Young Turks that Jones sent an "intimate" picture of his wife to Roger Stone.
“"That intimate photo was sent to Roger Stone and I don't know if that was consensual," Mark Bankston reveals an intimate photo of Alex Jones' wife was found in his phone and that it was sent to #RogerStone #tytlive”
— The Young Turks (@The Young Turks) 1660003431
TL, DR: JFC these people are disgusting filth.
Follow Liz Dye on Twitter!
Click the widget to keep your Wonkette ad-free and feisty. And if you're ordering from Amazon, use this link, because reasons .