A bankruptcy judge has blocked a proposed settlement between the families of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting victims who sued conspiracy theorist Alex Jones over his false remarks about the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school.
On Wednesday, judge Christopher Lopez of the US bankruptcy court for the southern district of Texas said he was unable to approve the proposed settlement between the families and Jones’s bankruptcy trustee. Lopez claimed that their efforts to divide Jones’s assets exceeded his court’s authority.
The decision complicates a proposed sale of Jones’s Infowars platform, and could spur divisions between families who sued Jones and won nearly $1.3bn in Connecticut courts and those who won $50m in Texas courts. The two groups of families had proposed a settlement that would guarantee the Texas families a 25% share of Jones’s future payments to the Sandy Hook families, with the Connecticut families taking 75%.
Speaking in court on Wednesday, Lopez said: “At its core, this is something I can’t approve.”
A federal judge Monday ordered the U.S. Justice Department to provide a sworn declaration by noon...
