Why was Infowars' sale blocked? Judge's order against the Onion’s takeover of Alex Jones' website explored
On Thursday, November 14, The Onion announced that they have acquired conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' conspiracy Infowars. But later that day, the federal bankruptcy judge overseeing the case issued an order against the takeover. As per reports by Variety, the judge has further ordered an evidentiary hearing for next week.
At the emergency status conference, Judge Christopher Lopez of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas said:
"No one should feel comfortable with the results of this auction."
Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion, told Variety:
"The joint bid from Global Tetrahedron and the Connecticut families has been selected as the winning bid for Infowars. The sale is currently underway, pending standard processes."
The judge reportedly ordered to halt the sale after concerns regarding the entire process arose. Judge Lopez further stated that the purpose behind the halt was to ensure that "a fair and full process" was conducted for the auction.
According to AP News, the judge further stated that he wasn't concerned about who won the bid, but was bothered only if fair process has taken place. Infowars founder Alex Jones also showed displeasure with how the auction had transpired.
Judge Lopez further cited concerns about much secrecy that was maintained, thus allegedly hindering transparency of the process.
"The people didn't even pay real money, they paid some weird FIAT thing" — Infowars' founder Alex Jones
As mentioned before, the court has halted the auction proceedings, claiming that there were concerns about whether a fair process was followed. Meanwhile, Infowars founder Alex Jones also seemed to have the same concern. Claiming that the sale was quite private and seemingly "illegal," Jones further said:
"[My lawyers] had a total consensus: they've never seen anything like it. This was a private, secret sale... basically illegal, this is bankruptcy crime on its face disguised as an auction that wasn't an auction."
He then added that the auction was yet to be official. Jones continued:
"The people didn't even pay real money, they paid some weird FIAT thing that wasn't agreed to by the judge's order and then they had the corporate media say that The Onion bought Infowars."
Jones even took to X, where he shared a couple of posts weighing in on the auction. In one of the tweets, dated November 15, he claimed that no auction has happened. As per Jones, the judge has mentioned it to the trustees that it "wasn't an auction."
According to the reports by The New York Times, The Onion didn't offer as much cash as was done by another bidder, First United American Companies. A "credit bid" was reportedly what led to the win. This was basically a pledge by Sandy Hook families who had previously filed a suit against Alex Jones.
During the hearing, Vickie Driver, Alex Jones' attorney, further stated that the Infowars website had been shut down since the trustee had to secure it. Judge Lopez further addressed the trustees and stated that the backup bidders were even unaware of the winning bid.
For those unversed, Alex Jones filed for personal bankruptcy back in 2022 after he lost in multiple defamation suits that were filed by the Sandy Hook families. He was ordered to pay almost $1.5 billion for calling the 2012 school massacre a hoax.