Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones doesn’t have to cry over The Onion just yet.
On Thursday, it was revealed that the satire-slinging website won Jones’ company, the far right-leaning Infowars, during a bankruptcy auction with some help from family members of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting victims. Within hours though, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez, who is overseeing the Chapter 7 liquidation of Infowars and the rest of Jones’ assets, temporarily halted its transfer to The Onion.
“We’re all going to an evidentiary hearing and I’m going to figure out exactly what happened,” he said. “No one should feel comfortable with the results of this auction.”
At the root of the matter is the bidding process itself and whether proper protocols were followed before The Onion emerged as the auction victor and, subsequently, the new owner of Infowars. During an emergency hearing Thursday, lawyers for both Jones and First United American — the only other Infowars bidder — specifically took issue with changes they claimed were made just days before the auction. They said Christopher Murray, the trustee who oversaw the proceedings, decided against giving the competing parties an opportunity to outbid each other.
Instead, the trustee made his ruling based on sealed bids submitted last week, and the terms of the Onion’s winning bid have not been disclosed. Should it be approved, The Onion will take over Infowars’ website, trademarks, video archive, certain social media accounts, a studio in Austin, Texas and “production equipment used to put Jones on the air.”
Jones for years used his internet and radio shows to claim the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax perpetrated by crisis actors to support a push for stricter gun control laws. His claims prompted a defamation lawsuit filed by families of those impacted by the massacre, during which 20 first-graders and six educators in Newtown, Conn. were shot and killed.
The internet personality was ultimately ordered to pay a staggering $1.44 billion, forcing him to declare bankruptcy. Jones — who has also claimed the Sept. 11 terror attack was an inside job and the 2020 presidential election was rigged — has also since acknowledged the shooting did actually happen.
Murray on Thursday confirmed that The Onion did not have a higher cash bid than First United — which said it bid $3.5 million — but maintained that he followed rules set forth by Lopez back in September. He said he felt The Onion’s deal was superior because some of the Sandy Hook families agreed to forgo a portion of the sale proceeds to pay Jones’ other creditors.