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.”
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 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.