EXPLAINER: What does Infowars’ bankruptcy filing mean?

By PAUL J. WEBER and DAVE COLLINS
Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Infowars has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as the website’s founder and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones faces defamation lawsuits over his comments that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax. The bankruptcy filing in Texas puts civil litigation on hold while the business reorganizes its finances. In the court filing Sunday, Infowars says it has estimated assets of $50,000 or less and estimated liabilities of $1 million to $10 million. Creditors listed in the bankruptcy filing include relatives of some of the 20 children and six educators killed in the 2012 school massacre in Connecticut. Jones has since conceded that the shooting did happen, but a lawyer for Sandy Hook families in a Connecticut lawsuit says Jones is trying to avoid being held accountable.