The Atlantic

Alex Jones Lost Everything—And Still Won

His brand of conspiracism will live on even if Infowars doesn’t.
Source: Yi-Chin Lee / Getty

Alex Jones couldn’t help himself. On Friday, just before a federal judge was set to decide the fate of Infowars, his conspiracy-media empire, Jones spun up yet another conspiracy.

He was on his way into a Houston courthouse as part of the ongoing saga over lies he told about the Sandy Hook school shooting. After six years of litigation, Jones owes $1.5 billion in defamation damages. The “FBI and CIA” had fabricated the charges against him, Jones explained, in his famously gravelly voice, to the half dozen or so cameramen in front of him. The agencies had organized a “deep-state operation against the American people,” he said, wiping the sweat off his head in the Houston heat. “This is a very, very exciting time to be alive.”

Apparently, the omnipotent FBI and CIA failed in their. With all the money Jones owes, it’s not clear how much longer he can keep hold of his most treasured asset.

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