IIRC Jones’ fines were escalating. $25,000 the first day, $50,000 the second day, $75,000 the third day and so on.
As it happened he skipped two days so $25,000 + 50,000 = 75,000. A third day the total would have been added up to $150,000, a fourth day would be $250,000 so I imagine it would amount to money he cared about eventually.
While the video below is now 3.5 months old it has something to say about Alex Jones messing with the courts and how they responded (I queued it to where this is discussed):
I found an NBC article that said that the judge said Jones could ask for the fines back if he showed up for the deposition the following week. He did. There is no transcript or quote as to what the judge actually said but maybe “asking” does not equal “getting”, in this case. One can only hope. Given Jones complete lack of cooperation cited in the video, I hope she denies the request.
I think the important point here is that Jones’ entire career is based on being as ridiculous as possible.
From his point of view, it doesn’t really matter if he gets the money back or not, either way, it can play into his narrative. If he gets the money back, then “I was never really in contempt, the courts recognized the validity of my arguments, they were afraid of what I might say!” If the court keeps the money, “Why are they oppressing me? I complied with their (illegal!) order, now they’re just punishing me because they know they can’t win any other way!”
His audience will buy the BS, whichever way he spins it.
I see he has declared bankruptcy..
Does bankruptcy make him judgement proof?
According to an article on Boing Boing he also got his $75,000 back.
He just made a $1.5 million settlement offer to the families, which they turned down.
I thought these cases were against Alex Jones the person, not against Infowars the organization. I don’t see how this is anything more than a stalling tactic, but I don’t understand civil litigation very well.
A new suit alleges that he siphoned $72 million away from Infowars before declaring bankruptcy.
ETA: Actually, it looks like this suit was filed BEFORE he declared bankruptcy.
Do courts punish people for messing around and hiding their money and making people chase it or will the court merely go for the original settlement (whatever it was) and leave it at that?
Apparently it is illegal, hence the lawsuit. Here’s the suit in full:
Yes, but it’s still hard to chase down usually
One thing about declaring bankruptcy – maybe it says this in the article, but I don’t have time to look – is that it freezes all civil litigation immediately. No case can proceed until the bankruptcy stay is lifted.