Families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre have asked a judge to throw out InfoWars' bankruptcy, saying it was filed to avoid upcoming trials to determine damages in defamation cases the families have won against the right-wing website, Reuters reported. The families filed their motion on Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, where InfoWars founder Alex Jones placed three holding companies into chapter 11 on April 17. The bankruptcy came in the wake of court judgments that found conspiracy theorist Jones and his media businesses liable in multiple defamation lawsuits after he falsely claimed that the 2012 shooting in Newtown, Conn. that left 20 children and six school employees dead was a hoax. The families said in Tuesday's filing that the bankruptcy is "not typical chapter 11" and that the case has "no valid bankruptcy purpose" and should be dismissed with prejudice as a bad-faith filing. InfoWars attorney Kyung Lee of Parkins Lee & Rubio previously rejected attacks on the legitimacy of the case and argued that the bankruptcy is necessary to preserve the means to eventually pay damages in the defamation cases. The chapter 11 case was filed shortly before a trial to determine how much the families were owed in one of the lawsuits was scheduled to begin in Texas. It was put on hold as a result of the bankruptcy.
