Trustee over Infowars auction asks court to OK Onion’s winning bid
A trustee who oversaw the Infowars bankruptcy auction told a judge Tuesday that he picked The Onion’s bid for the conspiracy-filled platform because was it far better than the only other proposal he received, from a company affiliated with Alex Jones.
Trustee Christopher Murray testified during the second day of a hearing where a judge is scrutinizing Murray’s decision to name the satirical news outlet’s offer as the winning bid after a November auction that Jones alleges involved fraud and collusion.
“Only two people showed up to bid and … one was just better than the other,” Murray testified, referring to The Onion. Asked how much better it was, he said “by a lot.”
It is not clear how quickly U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston will rule. Testimony stretched into the evening and closing arguments were expected late Tuesday.
The Onion, which wants to turn Infowars’ website and social media accounts into parodies, offered $1.75 million in cash and other incentives for Infowars’ assets in the auction that concluded on Nov. 14. First United American Companies, which runs a website in Jones’ name that sells nutritional supplements, bid $3.5 million.
Although The Onion’s cash offer was lower than that of First United American, it also included a pledge by many of the Sandy Hook families to forgo $750,000 of the auction proceeds due to them and give it to other creditors, providing the other creditors more money than 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 the judge would certify this fraud,” Jones said on his show Tuesday. “I mean it’s head-spinning the stuff they did and what they claimed.”
The trustee and The Onion deny the allegations from Jones and the company and accuse them of sour grapes.
