A federal judge has rejected The Onion's $1.75 million winning auction bid to buy Alex Jones' Infowars, citing shortcomings in the bankruptcy auction process and concerns about insufficient funds for Sandy Hook families.
The sale was part of Jones' bankruptcy case after courts ordered him to pay nearly $1.5 billion in defamation lawsuits for falsely calling the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting a hoax.
The Onion planned to transform Infowars into a parody platform slated for a January debut, but Judge Christopher Lopez ruled the auction "left money on the table."
Ben Collins, the chief executive officer of The Onion said his intentions behind the bid were purely humorous.
"Also, part of the reason we did bought InfoWars is because people on Bluesky told us it would be funny to buy InfoWars," Collins wrote on November 14th using the username, @bencollins.bsky.social on Bluesky. "And those people were right. This is the funniest thing that has ever happened."
Competing bidder First United American offered $3.5 million but faced objections from the Sandy Hook families, who supported The Onion's bid likely because it would secure financial compensation from Jones via his assets to them.
The bid would also make it more difficult for Jones to continue funding his legal team or other projects that actively hurt the reputations of the Sandy Hook families.
Trustee Christopher Murray defended the auction's fairness, while Jones' lawyer argued the judgments could be overturned on appeal.
The ruling allows Jones to remain at Infowars' Austin studio, with proceeds from future sales going to Sandy Hook families and other creditors.
In November, a Texas judge blocked The Onion from buying Infowars and ordered a review of the auction process after the trustee was reportedly only able to choose from sealed bids.
In November, Elon Musk refused to allow The Onion to take over Alex Jones' social media accounts on X.
