Judge Raises Concerns After The Onion Buys Infowars In Bankruptcy Auction

The Onion's winning bid for the assets of Alex Jones' bankrupt conspiracy-theory site, InfoWars, is under further review by a bankruptcy judge. The judge overseeing the Chapter 7 liquidation of InfoWars and Jones' assets temporarily halted the transfer of InfoWars to The Onion and ordered an evidentiary hearing for next week to review the auction. The bids were submitted secretly, which has raised concerns about the transparency of the process.

Jones and his Free Speech Systems LLC, the parent company of InfoWars, filed for bankruptcy in 2022 after families of the victims of the Sandy Hook mass shooting in Connecticut won a $1.4 billion verdict in their defamation lawsuit against Jones. The Onion's winning bid for InfoWars was backed by the Connecticut families, who agreed to forgo a portion of their recovery to increase the overall value of The Onion's bid.

Ben Collins, the CEO of The Onion's parent company, stated that the joint bid from Global Tetrahedron and the Connecticut families has been selected as the winning bid for InfoWars. The sale is currently underway, pending standard processes. However, the bankruptcy court hearing revealed that the Onion did not have a higher cash bid than First United, the only other bidder in the Infowars auction. The Onion's deal was picked as the superior offer because the Connecticut families agreed to forgo much of the money Jones owes them in order to pay other creditors.

Pending the court's approval of its acquisition, The Onion plans to relaunch InfoWars in January 2025 as a parody of far-right online subculture.

According to Variety, Collins said, "The Onion is proud to acquire Infowars, and we look forward to continuing its storied tradition of scaring the site’s users with lies until they fork over their cold, hard cash. Or Bitcoin. We will also accept Bitcoin."