A bankruptcy court has rejected The Onion’s attempt to buy Alex Jones’s media platform Infowars, ruling Tuesday that the process lacked transparency.
The decision came late at night after two days of proceedings in a Houston courtroom, where Judge Christopher Lopez said, “I don’t think anyone acted in bad faith here.”
“I think everyone was trying to buy an asset and put their best foot forward and play by the rules,” Lopez said, but added that he was troubled over the sealed bidding process overseen by court-appointed trustee Christopher Murray.
The process “did not maximize value in any way, based on the record before me,” Lopez added. “I don’t think it was enough money.”
Jones celebrated the ruling, telling his followers on X, “A judge followed the law.” The conspiracy theorist had been relentlessly whining about the sale to anyone who would listen, including right-wing personalities like Steve Bannon, and even had the support of tech billionaire Elon Musk, who sought to protect Infowars’ account on the X platform.
Global Tetrahedron, which owns the satirical Onion, bought the conspiracy platform at a bankruptcy auction in November. Jones declared bankruptcy after losing a defamation lawsuit from the families of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting, which his platform repeatedly suggested was staged in some way.
The Onion’s bid to purchase Infowars was backed by the families of eight Sandy Hook victims, who “agreed to forgo a portion of their recovery to increase the overall value of The Onion’s bid, enabling its success,” according to a statement last month. One day after the auction, though, Lopez paused the acquisition amid complaints from a losing bidder, First United American Companies, which is connected to Jones’s nutritional supplements business.
In a statement, The Onion’s CEO Ben Collins said it would continue to try and purchase Infowars.
“It is part of our larger mission to make a better, funnier internet, regardless of the outcome,” the statement said.
