A federal judge on Tuesday night rejected the auction sale of Alex Jones’ Infowars to The Onion satirical news outlet, criticizing the bidding process as flawed and the amount of money that families of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting stood to receive. The Onion was named the winning bidder on Nov. 14 over a company affiliated with Jones. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez’s decision following a lengthy two-day hearing in a Texas courtroom means Jones can stay at Infowars in Austin, Texas. The Onion had planned to kick Jones out and relaunch Infowars in January as a parody. The Onion offered $1.75 million in cash and other incentives for Infowars’ assets in the auction. First United American Companies, which runs a website in Jones’ name that sells nutritional supplements, bid $3.5 million. The bids were a fraction of the nearly $1.5 billion that Jones has been ordered to pay in defamation lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas filed by relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook shooting, which Jones repeatedly called a hoax. Lopez said the auction outcome “left a lot of money on the table” for families. “You got to scratch and claw and get everything you can for them,” Lopez said. Lopez cited problems — but no wrongdoing — with the auction process. He said he did not want another auction and left it up to the trustee who oversaw the auction to determine the next steps. Trustee Christopher Murray had defended The Onion’s bid during the hearing. Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families who sued Jones in Connecticut, said they were disappointed that the judge rejected The Onion’s bid after it was recommended by the trustee as being in the best interest of Jones’ creditors. “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 in a statement late Tuesday. “This decision doesn’t change the fact that, soon, Alex Jones will begin to pay his debt to these families and he will continue doing so for as long as it takes.” Jones, who did not attend the proceedings, quickly went back on the air to applaud the judge’s decision. “We can celebrate the judge doing the right thing with the most ridiculous, fraudulent auction known in human history,” he said. 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 $750,000 of the auction proceeds due to them and give it to other creditors, providing the other creditors more money than they would receive under First United American’s bid. Alex Jones’ bankruptcy case 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 shooting. Jones repeatedly called the 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 […]