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)
PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced Wednesday she's suing a Saudi Arabian agribusiness for allegedly violating a public nuisance law, contending that its groundwater pumping threatens the public health, safety and infrastructure of local communities in a rural western county.
The complaint filed in Maricopa County Superior Court alleges that the pumping at a Fondomonte Arizona, LLC. alfalfa farm has had widespread effects in the Ranegras Plain Basin of La Paz County, harming everyone who depends on basin water by drawing down supplies, drying up wells and causing the ground to crack and sink in some areas.
The lawsuit is the latest action by Arizona against foreign companies that use huge amounts of groundwater to grow thirsty forage crops for export because of climate challenges in other countries. Rural Arizona is especially attractive to international businesses because it has no groundwater pumping regulations.
The lawsuit alleges that since 2014, Fondomonte has extracted huge amounts of water that accelerated depletion of the basin’s aquifer. The company is a subsidiary of Saudi dairy giant Almarai Co.
“We find the allegations of the Attorney General totally unfounded, and we will defend any potential action against Fondomonte and our rights vigorously before the competent authorities,” Fondomonte said in a statement Wednesday.
“The company has invested significantly to bring the latest conservation technology and applies environmentally sustainable practices on these long-established farms,” it said. “Fondomonte has continued to develop responsibly during its time farming in the state and the company complies with all state regulations. ”
Years of drought have increased pressure on water users across the West, particularly in states like Arizona, which relies heavily on the dwindling Colorado River. The drought has also made groundwater — long used by farmers and rural residents without restriction — even more important for users across the state.
“Protection of Arizona’s precious groundwater is certainly important, but this lawsuit could open a can of worms,” said Kathryn Sorensen, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University. “Nearly every farm, city, mine, tribe, and power company in the state relies on groundwater.”
Water attorneys said they did not feel qualified to address the legal theory of public nuisance but emphasized the lack of regulation of groundwater pumping in rural Arizona.
Kathleen Ferris, an attorney and Arizona water policy expert who directed the study that led to the current law overseeing the state’s groundwater management, said rural groundwater use in the state “is “governed by the rule of reasonable use.”
“Anyone may drill a well and pump groundwater as long as the use of the groundwater is reasonable,” said Ferris, a senior research fellow at the Kyl Center. “Unfortunately, no use of groundwater has been determined by the courts to be ‘unreasonable.’ It’s basically a rule that benefits the biggest landowners with the deepest wells.’”
Mayes told reporters Wednesday that the Arizona Legislature has done nothing to fix the groundwater problem despite knowing about the problem for years.
“While laws regulating groundwater pumping could have prevented this situation, the legislature’s inaction has allowed the crisis to grow,” Mayes said. “When the legislature fails to protect our most basic resources, the attorney general must step in.”
La Paz County Supervisor Holly Irwin, a Republican, commended Mayes, a Democrat, for attempting to address what she described as her community’s “most challenging” concern.
“I know that my constituents will be thrilled over this, that somebody is actually paying attention to the real problems here,” Irwin said during Wednesday’s news briefing via a video conference call.
Mayes' lawsuit alleges that Fondomonte's actions are a public nuisance under a state statute that prohibits activity that injures health, obstructs property use, or interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property by a community.
Mayes called the company’s groundwater pumping “unsustainable” and said it caused “devastating consequences” for people in the area.
“Arizona law is clear: no company has the right to endanger an entire community’s health and safety for its own gain,” she said.
The lawsuit seeks to enjoin the company from further groundwater pumping it says is “excessive” and require that an abatement fund be established to cover the costs of damages caused by the company.
Mayes said the dollar figure hasn't been determined but it will be established through the course of litigation.
Arizona officials have been targeting Fondomonte for more than a year over its use of groundwater to grow forage crops, by not renewing or canceling the company's leases in Butler Valley in western Arizona. Some residents there had complained that the company’s pumping was threatening their wells.
Gabriel Sandoval is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announces she's suing a Saudi Arabian company for allegedly pumping groundwater that harms local communities in a rural western county, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Gabriel Sandoval)
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announces she's suing a Saudi Arabian company for allegedly pumping groundwater that harms local communities in a rural western county, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Gabriel Sandoval)
FILE - This image shows an Almarai logo in Cairo, Egypt, on Wednesday, April 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
FILE - La Paz County Supervisor Holly Irwin speaks with The Associated Press, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023, in Wenden, Ariz. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
Cut rows of alfalfa, waiting to be raked and baled, lie to the left as a windrower cuts an alfalfa field Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023, in the Gila Valley, Ariz. (Randy Hoeft/The Yuma Sun via AP)
