Onion’s bid to buy Infowars goes to judge as Alex Jones tries to stop sale
A bid by satirical media outlet The Onion to buy Alex Jones’ conspiracy theory platform Infowars is expected to return to a Texas courtroom on Monday, where a judge will decide whether a bankruptcy auction was properly handled as Jones alleges collusion and fraud.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez is scheduled to hear testimony in Houston about the November auction and how a trustee chose The Onion over the only other bidder — a Jones-affiliated company that bid twice as much. money than The Onion.
The sale of Infowars is part of Jones’ personal bankruptcy casewhich he filed at the end of 2022 after being ordered to pay almost 1.5 billion dollars in defamation lawsuits filed by relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut. Jones has repeatedly called the 2012 shootings, which killed 20 children and six educators, a hoax staged by actors aimed at increasing gun control.
Most of the proceeds from the sale of Infowars, as well as many of Jones’ personal assets, will be donated to the Sandy Hook families to help satisfy judgments rendered by juries and judges in state courts in Connecticut and Texas. Part of the proceeds will go to Jones’ other creditors.
The Onion, which wants to transform Infowars’ website and social media accounts into parodiesoffered $1.75 million for Infowars’ assets at the auction, while First United American Companies — which runs a website in Jones’ name that sells nutritional supplements — offered $3.5 million. dollars.
Onion’s offer also included a commitment from many Sandy Hook families to forfeit some or all of the auction proceeds owed to them, in order to give other creditors a total of $100,000 more than what they were owed. that they would receive under other offers.
The trustee, Christopher Murray, chose The Onion, saying his proposal was better for creditors because they would receive more money.
In court filings, Jones and First United American Companies accused the Murray, The Onion and Sandy Hook families of illegal auction collusion, fraud and violation of the judge’s rules relating to auctions.
Murray, The Onion and the families deny the allegations. In his own court filing, Murray called the allegations “an inappropriate attempt by a disappointed bidder to influence an otherwise fair and open auction process.”
All equipment and other assets of the Infowars studio in Austin, Texas, as well as its social media accounts, websites, video archives and product brands were up for auction. Jones uses the studio to broadcast his far-right, conspiracy theory-filled shows on the site Infowars, his account on the social platform X and radio stations.
Jones created another studio, websites and social media accounts in case The Onion got approval to buy Infowars and forced it out. Jones said he could continue to use Infowars platforms if the winner of the auction was friendly with him.
Jones is appealing the $1.5 billion judgments citing free speech rights, but acknowledged that the school shooting happened.
