The Onion’s bid to take over Alex Jones’ Infowars is in limbo as new court battles emerge
AUSTIN, Texas — AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Onion’s plan to take over the Infowars platforms that Alex Jones constructed right into a bullhorn of conspiracy theories and turned them into parody websites was in limbo once more Thursday, after a Texas court paused a proposed deal involving the satirical information outlet.
Austin-based Infowars is going through liquidation due to the greater than $1 billion in defamation lawsuits Jones owes family members of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting for calling the Connecticut bloodbath a hoax. The proposed licensing deal would give The Onion non permanent authority to use Infowars’ logos, copyrights and mental property whereas a state receiver in Texas works towards liquidation.
A state choose in Austin had scheduled a listening to Thursday on whether or not to approve The Onion deal with the receiver. But the continuing fizzled into a standing convention as a result of the Texas Third Court of Appeals late Wednesday accepted an emergency movement by Jones’ legal professionals that briefly blocked the switch of any Infowars property. The choose units one other listening to for May 28.
Lawyers for the Sandy Hook households had requested the Texas Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court ruling, however the excessive court didn’t difficulty a choice earlier than Thursday’s listening to.
“This newly insane, unprecedented legal stalling does nothing but delay our deal with the recipient to take control of InfoWars,” Ben Collins, The Onion’s CEO, stated in a social media submit forward of the listening to. “We now expect new traps in Alex Jones’ amoral war to deny paying the Sandy Hook families, but we’re freshly surprised by the US legal system’s appetite to put up with it.”
The Onion has already been promoting Infowars merchandise by itself web site, together with T-shirts and tote luggage with an Infowars emblem that replaces the “o” with its trademark onion picture. It desires to flip the Infowars platforms into comedy websites that would come with spoofing Jones, conspiracy theories and right-wing speaking factors, whereas giving income to the Sandy Hook victims’ family members.
Jones victory declared in movies posted on his social media websites after the appellate court ruling. He known as The Onion’s plan unlawful, citing pending appeals and his persevering with private chapter case.
“I said days ago there’s no way the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas doesn’t overturn this — you know they’re all Democrats — because it’s so outrageous what you’ve done,” Jones stated.
After Thursday’s listening to, Mark Bankston, a lawyer for a few of the Sandy Hook victims’ family members, accused Jones of delaying the liquidation of Infowars quite a few occasions with court filings.
“As far as the world is concerned, Infowars is dead. Everybody knows that,” he stated. “He’s trying to keep the bloated corpse of a media organization alive. It’s all a joke. Everybody knows where this is going.”
It’s not the primary time The Onion has hit a authorized setback in plans to take over Infowars.
In November 2024, the Chicago-based satirical outlet was named the winner of a chapter court public sale of the property of Infowars’ mother or father firm, Free Speech Systems, geared toward serving to pay a few of the defamation judgments. But a federal choose overturned the auction resultsciting issues with course of and The Onion’s bid.
Jones stated on his present this week that he has a new studio nearing completion. He has already arrange a new cellphone app and web sites, together with one which sells the dietary dietary supplements, clothes and different merchandise he hawks on his reveals. And his private X account, the place he posts movies of his reveals and has 4.5 million followers, is not affected by any of the court instances.
On Thursday night time, Jones toasted his crew and viewers throughout a livestream on X as a clock ticked down to when he stated his last moments in the constructing would hit.
“We’re not here anymore because they’re turning the power off at midnight,” he stated.
___
Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut. Associated Press reporter Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.
