Families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims are close to an agreement to resume their defamation lawsuits against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars site following a delay caused by its bankruptcy filing, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Lawyers for the Sandy Hook families said in a court hearing Friday they would move the defamation litigation pending against Mr. Jones back to state court in exchange for permanently dropping legal claims against a few Infowars properties that filed chapter 11 in April. The arrangement, which hasn’t been finalized, would let families escape the bankruptcy case and resume their lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas state courts, where Mr. Jones has already been found liable in the litigation. Families would also be clear to proceed with claims against Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems LLC, which hasn’t filed chapter 11. Families’ lawyers have accused Mr. Jones, who also didn’t file personal bankruptcy, of placing certain media assets in chapter 11 to avoid being held accountable for falsely claiming the 2012 school shooting was a hoax. His lawyers have denied the bankruptcy was filed in bad faith and said that chapter 11 was the appropriate forum for settling the families’ legal claims.
