Judge Refuses to Allow Sale of Infowars to The Onion
Source: NYT
A judge late Tuesday night said he would not approve the sale of Infowars, the website founded by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, to the Chicago-based satirical publication The Onion, prolonging a messy tug of war between two high-profile suitors.
The ruling, by Judge Christopher Lopez in federal bankruptcy court in Houston, puts The Onion’s plan to take possession of the Infowars site and its associated assets in limbo. The Onion’s bid was backed by the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting, who in 2022 won a $1.4 billion defamation lawsuit against Mr. Jones.
A spokesman for The Onion did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Mr. Jones did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Though the case involved colorful litigants dueling for a controversial prize, it ultimately hinged on austere matters of protocol. The arguments over two days of court hearings boiled down to whether the court-appointed trustee adhered to the law when he solicited bids and ultimately picked Global Tetrahedron, The Onion’s parent company, as the winner.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/10/business/media/the-onion-infowars-alex-jones.html?unlocked_article_code=1.gk4.RcMQ.MH99q1c4sWck&smid=url-share
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CousinIT
(10,951 posts)I’d not put it past the slimy robber baron weasel.
2naSalit
(95,539 posts)Just so fuckhead can keep being a pos online.
mahina
(19,452 posts)Hoping there can be an appeal
orleans
(35,648 posts)Not including the backing of the Sandy Hook families, First United American Companies had a higher bid, offering $3.5 million in cash. But Jeff Tanenbaum, an expert who advised the court-appointee trustee on the sale, said that the combined bid with the Sandy Hook families was superior.
Another point was whether Christopher Murray, the trustee overseeing the sale of Infowars, should have allowed suitors to submit their bids privately rather than in an open auction. A lawyer for the bidder affiliated with Mr. Jones argued the sealed bidding was improper; lawyers for the trustee and Global Tetrahedron argued it was acceptable.
As the drama played out in court, Mr. Jones hosted on X what he billed as the “final Infowars broadcast ever,” inaccurately telling viewers that the company was being sold to the billionaire Michael Bloomberg. He criticized the bankruptcy trustee’s process as an “Alice in Wonderland-level bizarroland.”
Before the hearing, Mr. Jones argued in a filing that the Sandy Hook families and Global Tetrahedron improperly colluded on their bid, making “a mockery of a fair and transparent auction and bidding process.” Mr. Jones’s filing, which ran for 29 pages, was a hodgepodge that traced alleged connections between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Sandy Hook families.
Although the hearing started off in decorous fashion, it got increasingly heated. At one point, a lawyer for the bidder associated with Mr. Jones questioned how the Sandy Hook families could afford “all these lawyers,” a remark that drew immediate objections.
https://archive.is/8q8m8#selection-4737.0-4766.0
Hope22
(3,567 posts)Time will tell.
Astraea
(526 posts)he's used to flushing his money down the xitter.
Botany
(73,336 posts)“I don’t think it’s enough money,” Lopez said in a late-night ruling from the bench in a Houston court. “I’m going to not approve the sale.”
It was not immediately clear whether there would be a new auction in which The Onion could bid again for Jones’ assets. Lopez said he would leave the decision about what to do next in the hands of the trustee, Christopher Murray, who had overseen the auction.
The judge said Murray had acted in good faith in running the auction in which The Onion’s parent company initially appeared to prevail, but he said the trustee did not run a transparent process and should have given a rival bidder associated with Jones another chance to improve its bid.
“I think you’ve got to go out and try to get every dollar,” Lopez said. “I think that the process fell down.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/bankruptcy-judge-rejects-onions-bid-buy-alex-jones-infowars-rcna183453
MadameButterfly
(2,500 posts)means Jones gets InfoWars back and the lawsuits accomplished nothing.
He should have to give up InfoWars. It should be over. Whatever it takes.
The Onion owning it would just be some extra fun.
Montauk6
(8,863 posts)He was given his button on 8/14/2019 by USC of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, so do the math...?
Source: https://www.txs.uscourts.gov/sites/txs/files/general-orders/Bankruptcy%20General%20Order%202019-05%20of%20Appointment%20as%20U.S.%20Bankruptcy%20Judge%20-%20Christopher%20Lopez.pdf
Lonestarblue
(12,284 posts)He probably wants Jones’ vitriol to stay on the air to support Trump, now knowing that Musk will be able to outbid anyone and keep the lies coming.
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,897 posts)So I’m sure it’s personal for musk.
(Musk recklessly platformed some kooky conspiracy about some poor college kid named Mark Brody being a Fed/neo Nazi protester because some twitter RWNJ thought Brody looked similar)
Musk’s attorney in the defamation case is a major league asshole who got caught by Bankston for working on the case without a Texas law license. He’s also up for an ethics complaint for barging in the deposition and acting like an asshole.
This is all “we have fuck you money so we can do what ever we want” stuff.
Btw, musk’s attorney is Alex Spiro who just got Alec Baldwin off. He’s becoming quite the fixer for musk in handling other defamation and SEC cases and, iirc, his $60 billion dollar payday case in Delaware. Kind of a Michael cohen without the redemption arc
PunkinPi
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Javaman
(63,357 posts)so jones will find some slimy billionaire to buy it for him and he'll be back on the air again spewing hate, stupidity and crazy ass shit.
jeffreyi
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This bad guys winning thing is really getting annoying.
Vinca
(51,627 posts)families finally get paid.
tonekat
(2,134 posts)If there are, they sure keep silent.
Polybius
(19,223 posts)Just to name a few.
Elessar Zappa
(16,298 posts)But there’s a lot more billionaires than that so take it for what it’s worth.
republianmushroom
(18,758 posts)Bought and paid for judge ?
ificandream
(11,047 posts)It was a done deal. It shouldn't have been unraveled.
GenThePerservering
(2,675 posts)when regressives sneered about all of the "free money" the gummint was giving people then, more than a few of us answered "Oh, you mean those checks that Trump signed?" ::silence::