Judge rejects The Onion’s bid for Infowars : NPR

The owners of The Onion have just learned they are not the winners of Alex Jones’ Infowars company. Late Tuesday, a federal bankruptcy judge rejected their bid in last month’s auction, saying the offer and the process were flawed.

After two days of testimony, Judge Christopher Lopez took issue with what he called the lack of transparency in the process, the uneven playing field and the failure to maximize value for the people to whom Jones owes money.

The decision is a significant — and rare — win for Jones, who has been embroiled in a long legal battle with relatives of the 26 children and educators killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn, who sued Jones for defamation in 2018.

The families said Jones’ repeated lies that the 2012 shooting never happened prompted his followers to mercilessly stalk and threaten them for years. After Jones refused to cooperate at trial, judges in Connecticut and Texas found him liable by default, and juries then awarded the families more than a billion dollars in damages, which Jones is still appealing. He then declared bankruptcy, and his media company, Free Speech Systems, was ordered to be sold off to help pay at least a fraction of what he owes the families.

The Connecticut families immediately expressed disappointment through a statement from their attorney, Chris Mattei.

“These families, who have already persevered through countless delays and roadblocks, remain resilient and determined as ever to hold Alex Jones and his corrupt businesses accountable for the harm he has caused,” Mattei said.

Lopez rejected allegations made by Jones and the losing bidder, First United American Companies, that the process was “rigged” and that the trustee overseeing the sale engaged in “collusion” with The Onion. And he said he believes everyone acted in good faith, but that the trustee overseeing the sale should have “scratched and clawed” to get a higher offer for the families.

“I don’t like second-guessing trustees,” the judge said, but that is exactly what he did.

“It’s clear that [U.S. bankruptcy trustee Christopher Murray] left a lot of money on the table,” Lopez said, adding that he thought the process was “doomed” the moment Murray decided to cancel a live auction and call for sealed “best and final” offers instead.

FUAC, a business affiliate of Jones, offered $3.5 million for Infowars. The Onion, in partnership with the Connecticut families, offered $1.75 million in cash, plus a novel sweetener they said raised the bid’s value to at least $7 million. The families agreed to forgo some of the money they’re entitled to, in order to raise the amount that other creditors, including the Texas families, could collect. But the judge said both offers were too small.

Lopez did not specify what should happen next, saying that was up to the trustee. He gave Murray 30 days to come up with a plan.

The decision means Jones will be able to continue his show under the Infowars name, to his Inforwars audience and from his Infowars studio — at least for now. Had The Onion’s bid been approved, Jones would have been kicked out of his studio and would have had to start rebuilding his audience and his brand from a back-up studio. The Onion’s intent was to “end Infowars’ relentless barrage of disinformation” and replace it with their brand of satire to skewer Jones’ brand of conspiracy mongering. The site would have also promoted gun violence prevention through a collaboration with Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit advocacy and research group.

In an “emergency” broadcast Tuesday night, Jones welcomed the news of his reprieve.

“Finally a judge followed the law in the lawfare fiascoes and ruled in Infowars favor,” he said. Jones also implored viewers to continue buying his nutritional supplements and branded merchandise to help support his fight to stay on the air.