A trustee who oversaw the bankruptcy auction of Alex Jones ’ Infowars asked a judge on Tuesday to approve The Onion’s winning bid for the conspiracy-filled platform.
Trustee Christopher Murray took the stand in the second day of testimony at a hearing where a judge is scrutinizing the satirical news outlet’s winning offer. He told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston that he was there asking the court to approve the sale of Infowars’ parent company to The Onion’s parent company.
It is not clear how quickly Lopez will rule. The Onion, which wants to turn Infowars’ website and social media accounts into parodies, offered $1.75 million in cash and other incentives for Infowars’ assets in a November auction.
Jones did not attend proceedings Monday or Tuesday. Instead, he broadcast from his studios in Austin.
Lawyers for Jones and a company affiliated with him that put in the only other bid questioned auctioneer Jeff Tanenbaum on Monday about how The Onion’s bid came to be valued at $7 million and why a live auction was not held. He defended both the value of the bid and its selection after he two sealed offers were opened.
Lopez could ultimately decide whether to void The Onion’s bid, name the Jones-affiliated company the winner or hold another auction, among other possibilities.
Jones and First United American Companies, which runs a website in Jones’ name that sells nutritional supplements and submitted the other bid, allege fraud and collusion in the auction that concluded on Nov. 14. The trustee and The Onion deny the allegations, accusing Jones and the company of sour grapes. First United American Companies bid $3.5 million.
If The Onion wins, Jones expects to be kicked out of the Infowars studio and its web and social media platforms.
“I can’t imagine the judge would certify this fraud,” Jones said on his show Tuesday. “I mean it’s head-spinning the stuff they did and what they claimed.”
The sale of Infowars is part of Jones’ personal bankruptcy case, which he filed in late 2022 after he was ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in defamation lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas filed by relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Jones repeatedly called the 2012 shooting that killed 20 children and six educators a hoax staged by actors and aimed at increasing gun control. Parents and children of many of the victims testified in court that they were traumatized by Jones’ conspiracies and threats from his followers.
Jones has since acknowledged that the Connecticut school shooting happened.
Most of the proceeds from the sale of Infowars, as well as many of Jones’ personal assets, will go to the Sandy Hook families. Some proceeds will go to Jones’ other creditors.
Although The Onion’s cash offer was lower than that of First United American, it also included a pledge by many of the Sandy Hook families to forgo some or all auction proceeds due to them to give other creditors a total of $100,000 more than they would receive under other bids.
Murray said The Onion’s proposal meant creditors would receive more money. The Onion valued the bid, with the Sandy Hook families’ offer, at $7 million, because that amount was equal to a purchase price that would provide the same amount of money to the other creditors.
In a court filing last month, Murray’s lawyers called First United American’s request to disqualify The Onion’s bid a “disappointed bidder’s improper attempt to influence an otherwise fair and open election process.”
“Having failed in its prior efforts to bully the Trustee and his advisors into accepting its inferior bid, FUAC now alleges, without evidence, collusion and bad faith in an attempt to mislead the Court and disqualify its only competition in the auction,” the lawyers wrote.
In his opening argument Monday, Jones attorney Ben Broocks said there was no way The Onion should have been chosen over First United American.
“How does a $1.75 million bid beat a $3.5 million bid?” he asked. “How is that $1.75 million greater? Well, it’s voodoo economics, to use a phrase.”
Up for sale were all the equipment and other assets in the Infowars studio in Austin, as well as the rights to its social media accounts, websites, video archive and product trademarks. Jones uses the studio to broadcast his far-right, conspiracy theory-filled shows on the Infowars website, his account on the social platform X and radio stations.
Jones has set up another studio, websites and social media accounts in case The Onion wins approval to buy Infowars and kicks him out. Jones has said he could continue using the Infowars platforms if the auction winner is friendly to him.
Jones is appealing the $1.5 billion in judgments citing free speech rights.