A federal judge on Tuesday night rejected the sale of the conspiracy platform Infowars to the satirical news channel The Onion after Alex Jones alleged that a recent bankruptcy auction was rife with illegal conspiracy.
The Onion was named the winning bidder for a Jones-affiliated company on November 14. The decision by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez means Jones can remain with Infowars in Austin, Texas. The Onion planned to kick Jones out and relaunch Infowars as a parody in January.
At the end of a lengthy two-day hearing in a Texas courtroom, Lopez criticized the auction process as flawed and said the outcome “left a lot of money on the table” for families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
“You have to scratch and claw and get everything for them,” Lopez said.
The Onion offered $1.75 million in cash and other incentives for Infowars’ assets during the auction. First United American Companies, which operates a website selling nutritional supplements on Jones’ behalf, is offering $3.5 million.
Lopez cited problems — but not misconduct — with the auction process. He said he did not want another auction and left it to the trustee, who oversaw the auction, to determine next steps.
Trustee Christopher Murray had defended The Onion’s bid during the hearing.
“Only two people showed up to bid and … one was just better than the other,” Murray testified, referring to The Onion. When asked how much better it was, he replied ‘much better’.
Although The Onion’s cash offer was lower than First United American’s, it also included a promise by many of the Sandy Hook families to turn over $750,000 of the auction proceeds owed to them and to other creditors which would give the other creditors more money than they had earned. they would receive under First United American’s bid.
Jones did not attend the proceedings and instead broadcast from his studios in Austin.
“I can’t imagine that the judge would condone this fraud,” Jones said on his show Tuesday. “I mean, it’s mind-boggling what they did and what they claimed.”
The curator and The Onion deny the allegations made by Jones and the company and accuse them of sour grapes.
The sale of Infowars is part of Jones’ personal bankruptcy case, which he filed in late 2022 after being ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in defamation lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas brought by relatives of shooting victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Jones repeatedly called the shooting that killed 20 children and six educators a hoax staged by actors and aimed at increasing gun control. Parents and children of many of the victims testified in court that they were traumatized by Jones’ conspiracies and threats from his followers.
Jones has since acknowledged that the school shooting occurred in Connecticut.
