The Onion’s bid to buy Infowars goes to judge
Jones tries stopping sale
A bid by The Onion satirical news outlet to buy Alex Jones’ conspiracy theory platform Infowars returned Monday to a Texas courtroom, where a judge heard arguments on whether a bankruptcy auction was properly run as Jones alleges collusion and fraud.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston is looking into the November auction and how a trustee chose The Onion over the only other bidder — a company affiliated with Jones that offered twice as much money as The Onion. The judge said the hearing would last into Monday evening and pick up again on Tuesday afternoon.
The sale of Infowars is part of Jones’ personal bankruptcy case, which he filed in late 2022 after he was ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in defamation lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas filed by relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut. Jones repeatedly called the 2012 shooting that killed 20 children and six educators a hoax staged by actors and aimed at increasing gun control.
Most of the proceeds from the sale of Infowars, as well as many of Jones’ personal assets, will go to the Sandy Hook families to help satisfy judgments issued by juries and judges in state courts in Connecticut and Texas. Some proceeds will go to Jones’ other creditors.
The Onion, which wants to turn Infowars’ website and social media accounts into parodies, offered $1.75 million for Infowars’ assets in the auction, while First United American Companies — which runs a website in Jones’ name that sells nutritional supplements — bid $3.5 million.
The Onion’s bid also included a pledge by many of the Sandy Hook families to forgo some or all of the auction proceeds due to them to give other creditors a total of $100,000 more than they would receive under other bids.
The trustee, Christopher Murray, chose The Onion, saying its proposal was better for creditors because they would receive more money.
Joshua Wolfshohl, an attorney for Murray, told the judge Monday that no wrongdoing occurred during the auction. He called the complaints by Jones and First United American Companies unfounded.
“The vast majority of their complaints are just fantastic, imagined conspiracy theories that have no basis in reality,” he said.