Bankruptcy judge rejects Alex Jones’ Infowars sale to The Onion

A federal judge rejected the sale of Alex Jones’ Infowars to the satirical website, The Onion.

Tuesday’s latest ruling by US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez comes after Jones said a recent bankruptcy auction was rife with illegal dealings.

Onion was named the winner of the bid last month over a company affiliated with Jones. Lopez’s decision means Jones can stay at Infowars in Austin, Texas. The Onion had planned to kick Jones and relaunch Infowars in January as a joke.

Lopez criticized the auction process as flawed and said the outcome “left a lot of money on the table” for the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

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The trustee who oversaw the Infowars bankruptcy auction told a judge Tuesday that he chose The Onion’s bid for the conspiracy-filled platform because it was better than another offer he received, from a firm affiliated with Alex Jones.

Trustee Christopher Murray testified on the second day of a trial where a jury considered Murray’s decision to name the news outlet’s proposal as the winning bid after a November auction that Jones said involved fraud and collusion.

Onion donated $1.75 million in cash and other incentives for Infowars assets in an auction that ended Nov. 14. First United American Companies, which runs a website on Jones’ behalf that sells nutritional supplements, bid $3.5 million.

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Although Onion’s monetary contribution was lower than that of First United American, it included a promise by several Sandy Hook families to forgo $750,000 of the proceeds of the auction that they must pay and give to other creditors, giving other creditors more money than they did. will get under First United American’s bid.

Pedestrians walk past the Onion Newsstand in San Francisco, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/Getty Images)

During a broadcast on his Austin station early Tuesday, Jones said: “I don’t think a judge is going to uphold this fraud.”

“I mean it’s a headache with the things they did and said,” he said.

The sale of Infowars is part of Jones’ bankruptcy case, which was 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.

InfoWars founder Alex Jones speaks to the media outside of Waterbury Superior Court during his arraignment on September 21, 2022 in Waterbury, Connecticut. (Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images/Getty)

Jones repeatedly called the 2012 shooting that killed 20 children and six teachers a hoax aimed at promoting gun control. The parents and children of many of the victims stated in court that they were traumatized by Jones’ plots and threats from his followers.

The host of Infowars has admitted that the Connecticut school shooting happened. But Jones is appealing the $1.5 billion judgment, citing his free speech rights.

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Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion, said the company is “deeply disappointed” by the judge’s decision but will “continue to seek a resolution that helps Sandy Hook families find a positive outcome for the horror they endured.”

“We will continue to look for a way to buy InfoWars in the coming weeks. It’s part of our larger mission to create a better, funnier internet, regardless of the outcome of this case,” Collins said in a statement provided to FOX Business. . “We’re grateful that the court also found that Onion acted in good faith, but we’re disappointed that everyone was reinstated on the board without success, and with no clear way forward for any of the applicants. And for all those who are as upset about this as we are, please know that we will continue to seek opportunities We are not distracted from our work of making the world funny.

FOX Business reached out to Infowars for comment.