Families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims have pushed back against a bankruptcy trustee's attempt to relinquish equity interests in conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' Free Speech Systems LLC, telling a Texas bankruptcy court Friday that doing so would frustrate their collection of more than $1 billion in judgments.

The trustee had earlier this month given the court notice of his intent to abandon ownership interest in FSS on the grounds that it was "burdensome" to the bankruptcy estate and was of "inconsequential value and benefit to the estate."

But families of the 2012 shooting victims told the bankruptcy court on Friday that such an abandonment is "premature" and would likely harm the estate's creditors, forego potential recoveries, and lead to more delays in their efforts to collect more than $1 billion in defamation damages.

"Jones has proven time and time again that he will seek to delay and prolong this case to prevent the Sandy Hook families from collecting on their over one billion dollars' worth of judgments against him and [Free Speech Systems] for as long as possible," they argued. "Jones has employed various strategies over the past three years to frustrate the Families' efforts to collect any of what they are owed."

The families had won more than $1 billion in damages in 2022, stemming from their claims that Jones defamed them by accusing them of being actors whose children were never killed in the Dec. 14, 2012, Sandy Hook massacre, which he had declared a hoax. Jones has since conceded that the shooting happened.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up Jones' appeal of the roughly $1.4 billion defamation judgment, in which he argued that a Connecticut state court unconstitutionally imposed a "death penalty" on his media business in violation of the First Amendment.

Jones argued in his petition for a writ of certiorari that the court improperly handed down a default judgment against him and FSS, and then allowed a jury to award the damages to the Sandy Hook victims' families without requiring any factual showing that he made defamatory statements about them.

Aside from the Connecticut judgment, a Texas state jury had awarded a separate group of families $45.1 million in damages.

Jones and his media companies have filed several bankruptcy cases.

Last summer, a Texas bankruptcy judge dismissed a Chapter 11 case of FSS and converted Jones' personal bankruptcy case to a Chapter 7.

On Oct. 3, Christopher Murray, the Chapter 7 trustee, filed his notice of proposed abandonment.

In opposing the abandonment notice, the Sandy Hook families said Friday that retaining the FSS interests "does not burden the estate in any material way."

They said that the interests "do not utilize estate resources or cause the estate to incur additional costs and expenses."

Nor will retaining the interests result in any delay to the administration of Jones' chapter 7 case, the families said.

They further argued that the interests could be sold for value and provide a benefit to the Chapter 7 estate.

The families also noted that they're working on organizing a bid for the interests.

"While the Sandy Hook families need additional time to properly diligence a potential purchase, they expect to be able to engage substantively with the trustee on a purchase of the FSS interests in the coming weeks," they said in their filing.

In warning against abandoning the interests to Jones, the families argued that if the interests were to revert to him, there was "no doubt that Jones would immediately seek to file FSS for bankruptcy once again."

The families said that a second FSS bankruptcy filing would "cause further gridlock in the parties' respective position and forestall any progress" in their efforts to collect "after several years of delay."

"The practical result of allowing the trustee to abandon the FSS Interests would be to set this case back by nearly 18 months," the families wrote.

Counsel for the parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Monday evening.

The Texas Sandy Hook families are represented by Jennifer J. Hardy, Stuart R. Lombardi and Deanna Drenga of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, Avi Moshenberg of Lawson & Moshenberg PLLC, and Jarrod B. Martin of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP.

The Connecticut families are represented by Ryan E. Chapple of Cain & Skarnulis PLLC, Alinor C. Sterling of Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder PC, and Kyle J. Kimpler, Paul Paterson, Daniel S. Sinnreich and Vida J. Robinson of Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP.

Jones is represented by Ben C. Broocks of Broocks Law Firm PLLC, and Shelby A. Jordan of Jordan & Ortiz PC.

Murray is representing himself, and is represented by Jacqueline Chiba and Erin Elizabeth Jones of Jones Murray LLP, and Joshua W. Wolfshohl of Porter Hedges LLP.

The case is In re: Alexander E. Jones, case number 22-33553, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.