Alex Jones files for bankruptcy after billion-dollar Sandy Hook court ruling

Infowars host and conspiracy theorist ordered to pay $473m in damages on top of nearly $1bn verdict handed down in October

Rightwing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones filed for personal chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Texas on Friday, according to a court filing, as he faces nearly $1.5bn in court judgments over conspiracy theories he spread about the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre.

Jones was ordered by a Connecticut court last month to pay $473m in punitive damages on top of a nearly $1bn verdict handed down in October for his defamatory lies that the shooting was faked.