What Do Alex Jones, Señor Trumpanzee, George Santos, The Zieglers & Matt Schlapp All Have In Common?

The GOP-- The Anti-Law & Order Party

Alex Jones will be 50 in February. You’ve never heard me say this about anyone before, but Jones should have been put down years ago. A toxic and lethal sabotageur, he claims his behavior is all about seeing himself as a performance artist and “playing a character.” The “character” he’s playing routinely uses hateful, divisive and inflammatory language against various groups, including Muslims, immigrants and LGBTQ+ individuals, fostering intolerance and violence towards marginalized communities. He’s probably best known for spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories, falsely claiming numerous events and situations were staged or government plots, including 9/11, the Oklahoma City bombing, and mass shootings like Sandy Hook, Parkland and Las Vegas. Since his listeners are solely super low IQ, low-information misanthropes, he has sown distrust in public institutions and contributed to the spread of harmful myths and disinformation. Let’s look at his repeated claims that the 2012 mass-shooting at  Sandy Hook elementary school was a hoax staged by “crisis actors” and government agents. Juries have found that this false narrative caused immense pain and suffering to the families of the victims, who were subjected to harassment and threats from Jones’ sub-moron followers.

In two trials, Jones has been ordered to pay over $1.4 billion in damages to families of Sandy Hook victims, with a third case pending. He filed for personal bankruptcy exactly one year ago in an attempt to shield himself from the massive financial judgments. However, a judge recently ruled that the damages can’t be discharged through bankruptcy. On top of that, he’s been fined for various legal violations, including missing depositions and making false statements to the court. On Friday, for example, an appeals court in Connecticut upheld a $75,000 fine for missing a deposition last March, having claimed he was too sick to attend a court hearing while actually broadcasting live at the same time. The families  have also sued him for diverting his assets to shell companies owned by relatives. That lawsuit says Jones drew $18 million from the Infowars company beginning in 2018 and accuses him of claiming a dubious $54 million debt at about the same time to another company he owns.

He has been running around boasting that the Sandy Hook families would never get one cent from him. But… Friday, in a Texas bankruptcy court filing, Jones, who has an estimated net worth of around $14 million proposed that the families should accept $5.5 million annually for 10 years, a tiny fraction, like 4%, of what he owes them.

CNN reported that Friday was the court-ordered deadline for Jones to propose a payment plan, “one day after the 11th anniversary of the attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School... [Jones’] lies spawned multiple lawsuits and a trial was held in 2022 over lawsuits that were filed in Connecticut. Family members throughout that trial described in poignant terms how the lies had prompted unrelenting harassment against them and compounded the emotional agony of losing their loved ones.”

That was about a week after Elon Musk reinstated his Twitter account and hosted a livestream event with him giving Jones an imprimatur of Muskiness.

Last month, the Sandy Hook families said in a court filing that Jones could pay the families at least $8.5 million a year plus half of all of Jones’ annual income above $9 million, along with other assets that are not exempt from bankruptcy protection. The families would also get an ownership stake in Free Speech Systems. If Jones met the terms of their proposal for 10 years, he would get back full ownership of his company and “will be free from all liability,” according to the proposal.

The families’ attorneys said that if Jones did not accept that proposal, they would demand full liquidation of any assets not protected by bankruptcy law, leaving him to likely “face a lifetime of litigation and enforcement proceedings.”

A hearing for the judge to consider the latest proposal is set for the end of February.

Jones was ordered to pay more than $1.1 billion in the Connecticut case brought by the family members of eight shooting victims and a first responder. US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Texas ruled in favor of the families, except on the more than $322.5 million they’d been awarded in common-law punitive damages.

But the myriad Trump trials, the upcoming George Santos trial, the Alex Jones trials and lawsuits, the Mothers For Liberty/Ziegler cases are hardly the only incidents putting the lie to GOP claims to be the party of law and order. Let’s not forget about Republican Party king-pin Matt Schlapp who was forcing young Republican men to have sex with him. And now it turns out the folks running the most important Republican annual gathering, CPAC, were aware of what Schlapp was up to before he was exposed and sued. The trial is scheduled for June.

Beth Reinhard and Isaac Arnsdorf reported on Saturday that CPAC officials were aware of Schlapp’s predatory history but failed to investigate or remove him. “In one alleged incident, during a fundraising trip to South Florida in early 2022, Schlapp was accused of stripping to his underwear and rubbing against another person without his consent, according to the filing. In 2017, at a CPAC after-party, Schlapp attempted to kiss an employee against his wishes, the lawsuit claims. In both cases, according to the suit, the alleged victims reported the unwanted advances to staffers at CPAC’s parent organization, the American Conservative Union, but no action was taken against Schlapp, a longtime Republican power broker and prominent [Trump] backer.”

The new allegations were added one week ago to a lawsuit filed in January by a former Republican campaign staffer, Carlton Huffman, who accused Schlapp of groping him in October 2022. The alleged additional victims are not identified and are not joining the suit; the court filing says their allegations were obtained through the discovery process.

…The amended lawsuit adds to the financial and political pressures on the ACU, a standard-bearer of the conservative movement that has endured an exodus of board members, staffers and corporate sponsors amid mounting concerns about Schlapp’s leadership and financial stewardship. Schlapp and the ACU have not responded to the amended complaint in court yet.

“ACU previously was notified and aware of Matthew Schlapp’s propensity for unlawful sexual assault and battery, including at least two prior incidents of similar conduct,” the filing says. “ACU was negligent in its continued employment of Matthew Schlapp in a prominent leadership role.”

The new complaint in Alexandria Circuit Court adds the American Conservative Union as a defendant and asks for an additional $3.7 million in punitive damages and costs. Previously, only Schlapp and his wife were named as defendants in the $9.4 million suit. ACU had paid more than $1 million in legal fees as of August, as the discovery process was in the early stages, according to a former board member’s resignation letter.

…Five board members have left the ACU and its foundation arm in recent months, as well as more than half the staff since 2021. Some former officials have called for Schlapp’s resignation to protect the reputation of CPAC, which draws thousands of conservative activists from around the country to an annual gathering in the D.C. area and showcases GOP politicians seeking higher office.

Schlapp and his allies have attributed the criticism to “those with an ax to grind.”

…The lawsuit began in January when Huffman, a staffer on Herschel Walker’s U.S. Senate campaign in Georgia, alleged that Schlapp groped his crotch during a campaign trip to Atlanta last fall. Call logs, texts and videos provided by Huffman and his confidants to The Post and in his lawsuit broadly matched his account of quickly sharing the allegation with six family members and friends, and three Walker campaign officials confirmed to The Post that he told them about the alleged incident that night or the next day.