A federal judge said Monday that he may hold an evidentiary hearing next month to decide whether to approve the sale of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ media company to satirical publication The Onion.
Houston Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez said the sale, which will take place after the Nov. 13 auction, will remain in limbo pending a hearing where interested parties can make their claims and decide which of Jones’ assets can be sold. It was revealed that. . The date has not been decided immediately.
He also declined to issue an immediate ruling on Jones’ request for a temporary restraining order to disqualify Onion from bidding, saying, “Whatever the status quo was before the auction, the status quo will be maintained.” ”, effectively allowing Mr. Jones to continue broadcasting from his flagship platform, Infowars. For the time being.
“It’s not our job to fire employees the week before Thanksgiving, but that doesn’t seem to be what happened,” Lopez said. “People are continuing to work.”
Another bidder, First United American Companies, a limited liability company connected to Mr. Jones’ nutritional supplement business, had disputed the auction result, saying it had bid twice as much in cash as Onion. .
At issue is ownership of Infowars’ intellectual property, including its website. The auction’s prized asset is intended for most of its proceeds to be used to satisfy defamation judgments awarded to several families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Families won a lawsuit against Jones in 2022 after he repeatedly called the Newtown, Connecticut, massacre that killed 20 children and six staff members a “hoax” on an Infowars broadcast. He filed for bankruptcy in his home state of Texas after receiving a nearly $1.5 billion lawsuit judgment.
Mr. Jones’ company, Free Speech Systems, was scheduled to be sold to Onion, which has often mocked Mr. Jones for its fake news coverage, after bankruptcy trustee Christopher Murray announced the winning bid.
But First United American Companies quickly disputed the results, saying in an emergency filing seeking to block the sale that it had offered $3.5 million in cash compared to Onion’s $1.75 million.
The auction process approved by Lopez does not require Murray to automatically select the highest bidder, and the trustee could reject bids that are “contrary to the best interests” of property creditors. there were.
Mr. Lopez said Monday that the focus of the evidentiary hearing will be on Mr. Murray’s business decisions regarding how to hold the auction. He said he could decide whether to approve the sale, order another auction or hold additional public hearings.
“I want a fair and transparent process. Let’s see how that process goes,” Lopez said, adding, “Everyone is going to have their day in court.”
In a preliminary court hearing after the auction, Murray said that under Onion’s bid, “creditors ended up with a significant advantage.” He also said that the majority of the Sandy Hook family intends to forgo their share of the sale proceeds and instead receive a portion of future profits from the revamped Infowars, which would allow other creditors to He also explained in the filing that the funds will be recoverable.
The Onion estimates the total bid at $7 million.
But Walter Schick, an attorney for First American United Companies, said in a filing that the deal amounted to a financial bid for “monopoly” because future revenues are undetermined.
Regarding the Sandy Hook family’s support of the Onion, he said, “This was not just cooperation, it was a complete collusion.”
Chris Mattei, an attorney for some of the victims’ families, said in a previous statement that Onion was performing a “public service” by spearheading the acquisition and that it “significantly impeded Mr. Jones’ ability to do further harm.” “It will be.”
Lawyers for the Onion said in a filing Sunday that the company “has been subject to harassment and intimidation from the debtors and their audiences since the award was announced.” They argued that the sale should proceed, saying the joint bid “does not amount to collusion” and challenging the idea that the auction lacked transparency because it used a sealed bidding process.
“Secret bidding maintains competitive tension among bidders and forces them to offer their best terms, regardless of the ranking of other bids,” the lawyers wrote, adding, “This Far from keeping the process secret, once the trustees selected successful bidders, the trustees made all information about the qualified bids public, including disclosing copies of the initial and final bids submitted by each qualified bidder. ”
Onion CEO Ben Collins, who previously covered disinformation and conspiracy theories for NBC News, said on social media that although “the judge had some questions about the process and assets,” “A bid with the family is clearly the best.”
Collins also wrote that the Onion plans to relaunch Infowars as “the stupidest website on the Internet.” People familiar with the sale told NBC News that the new platform will include prominent Internet humorists and content creators.
In announcing the sale, The Onion issued a news release written in the voice of the satirical CEO of Global Tetrahedron, the paper’s Chicago-based parent company.
Infowars was briefly shut down after the sale was announced, but Jones claimed the site had been “hijacked” and reopened it.
Meanwhile, Jones, who has built a small media empire by spreading conspiracy theories and misinformation, has been criticized by Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump after Musk’s X company filed a court appearance. claimed to be investigating the bankruptcy auction in his favor. . Company X is presumed to be an interested party because Jones is using will be done.
Mr. Jones’ lawyers last week filed a request for a temporary restraining order to invalidate Onion’s bid, arguing that First United American Companies should be the winning bidder. Jones described the auction process as “fraudulent” but told the audience he would not be silenced no matter what happens with Infowars.
