The Onion's rejected purchase of Infowars in an auction bid supported by families of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting dealt them a new setback Wednesday and clouded the future of Alex Jones' conspiracy theory platform, which will remain in his control for at least the near future.
What's next for Infowars and the Sandy Hook families' long-sought efforts to hold Jones accountable over calling one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history a hoax was unclear, after a federal judge in Houston late Tuesday rejected The Onion's winning bid for the site. The only other bidder was a company aligned with Jones.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston said he did not want another auction but offered no roadmap over how to proceed. One possibility includes ultimately allowing Sandy Hook families — who comprise most of Jones' creditors — to return to state courts in Connecticut and Texas to collect on the nearly $1.5 billion in defamation and emotional distress lawsuit judgments that Jones was ordered to pay them.
“Our hope is that when this process ends, and it will end, and it will end sooner rather than later, is that all assets that Alex Jones has available are paid to the families, and that includes Infowars, and that as a result of that process Alex Jones is deprived of the ownership and control of the platform that he’s used to hurt so many people,” Christopher Mattei, an attorney for the Sandy Hook families, said Wednesday.
The families, meanwhile, were preparing to mark the 12th anniversary of the Dec. 14 shooting.
The sale of Infowars is part of Jones’ personal bankruptcy case, which he filed in late 2022 after he was ordered to pay the $1.5 billion. Jones was sued for repeatedly saying on his show that the 2012 massacre of 20 first graders and six educators was staged by crisis actors to spur more gun control.
He has since conceded that the shooting did happen.
Lopez said there was a lack of transparency in the bidding process and too much confusion about The Onion's bid, and he expressed concern that the amount of money offered was too low.
The Onion's parent company, Global Tetrahedron, submitted a $1.75 million cash offer with plans to kick Jones out and relaunch Infowars in January as a parody. The bid also included a deal with many of the Sandy Hook families for them to forgo $750,000 of their auction proceeds and give it to other creditors.
The other bidder was First United American Companies, which runs a website in Jones’ name that sells nutritional supplements and planned to let Jones stay on the Infowars platforms. It offered $3.5 million in cash and later, with Jones, alleged fraud and collusion in the bidding process. Lopez rejected those allegations.
Christopher Murray, the trustee who oversaw the auction, said he picked The Onion and its deal with the Sandy Hook families because it would have provided more money to Jones' other creditors.
Lopez directed Murray to come up with a new plan to move forward. Murray and representatives of The Onion did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
The judge said there was a possibility there could be a trial in 2025 to settle Jones' bankruptcy and that Murray could try to sell the equity in Infowars' parent company.
The judge said he wanted to hear back from Murray and others involved in the bankruptcy within 30 days on a plan.
On the social media platform X, Jones called the judge's ruling a “Major Victory For Freedom Of The Press & Due Process."
Jeff Anapolsky, an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center and the managing director and founder of Anapolsky Advisors, a financial consulting firm, said he was not surprised Lopez rejected the sale. He was not involved in the case but said he has appeared before Lopez and described him as a fair judge.
Anapolsky believes the sale of the Infowars assets will ultimately take place and be approved.
“So that’s up to Mr. Murray now, the trustee, to go do something to make everybody feel like everybody had their say and understand the transparency of the process,” Anapolsky said.
The decision came during a solemn week for relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. The 12th anniversary is Saturday, and some of the victims' relatives were traveling to Washington, D.C., to attend an annual vigil for victims of gun violence. The families usually mark the anniversary out of the public eye.
Many of the families have said their lawsuits against Jones bought back the unbearable pain of losing their loved ones, as well as the trauma of being harassed and threatened by believers of Jones' hoax conspiracy. Relatives said they have been confronted in public by hoax believers and received death and rape threats.
The families have not received any money from Jones since winning the trials.
Associated Press writer Juan A. Lozano in Houston contributed to this report.
FILE - Alex Jones speaks to the media after arriving at the federal courthouse for a hearing in front of a bankruptcy judge, June 14, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, file)
