A judge on Monday set a hearing for next month on The Onion’s bid for Infowars, keeping the satirical news website’s purchase of Alex Jones’ media company in limbo for at least a few more weeks.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez scheduled another hearing for an undetermined date in December to decide whether the purchase of Infowars at auction by The Onion and its parent company, Global Tetrahedron, was fair. He also declined to issue a temporary restraining order, per Jones’ request, to disqualify the satirical site’s bid.
“I want a fair and transparent process, and let’s see where that process goes,” Lopez said. “Everyone will have their day in court.”
The Onion announced on Nov. 14 that it had bought Infowars at auction with plans to turn it into a website that parodies figures like Jones. The Onion’s bid was supported by some families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims, whose successful defamation lawsuit against Jones forced him into bankruptcy.
But Jones and the losing bidder, First United American Companies (FUAC), accused the trustee overseeing the auction of colluding with The Onion and the Sandy Hook families. FUAC — a company affiliated with one of Jones’ online supplement stores — said it had put down twice as much cash as the winning bid. The Onion’s bid, however, included a pledge from the families to forgo some of the proceeds so that other creditors would get more money than the higher cash bid, which the trustee determined was better for creditors.
Although Infowars was taken down the day the auction sale was announced, it has since been returned to Jones as legal proceedings over the auction process resume, and Jones has continued to broadcast. Elon Musk’s X Corp. has also gotten involved in the case, filing a notice of appearance. As NBC News reported, “X Corp. is presumed to be an interested party because Jones uses X to broadcast his show and the case involves the potential transfer of Jones’ X handle in the sale.” Lopez, the bankruptcy judge, will eventually decide whether to approve Infowars’ sale to The Onion, to order a new auction of Infowars’ intellectual property and website, or to award Infowars to FUAC, the backup bidder.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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