Last month, the satirical website The Onion was declared the winning bidder in an auction to purchase Alex Jones’ conservative media website Infowars. On November 14, The Onion topped a company affiliated with Jones to place what was named the winning bid.

Infowars was put up for sale as part of the bankruptcy case against Jones. This came after Jones was ordered to pay $1.5 billion to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting for falsely describing it as a hoax. The 2012 shooting resulted in the death of twenty young children and six school staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

On Tuesday night, however, a judge stepped in to block the sale of Infowars to The Onion. This was a huge victory for both Infowars and Jones himself.

From Breitbart News:
The auction sale of Alex Jones’ Infowars to The Onion satirical news outlet was rejected late Tuesday night by a judge who criticized the bidding process as flawed while questioning the amount of money families of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting stood to receive.

After a two-day hearing, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez of Houston ruled an auction for Infowars did not result in the best bids possible. However, he rejected Jones’ claims the auction was plagued by “collusion.”

The decision not to approve the sale means Jones can stay at his Infowars headquarters in Austin, Texas. The Onion had planned to kick Jones out and relaunch Infowars in January as a parody.

Judge Lopez Sounds Off 

Judge Lopez cited issues with the auction process as the reasoning behind his decision. However, he stopped short of claiming that there was clear wrongdoing.

Judge Lopez added that he is not in favor of another auction. Instead, he will leave the next step up to the court-appointed trustee who presided over the auction.

“We are deeply disappointed in today’s decision, but The Onion will continue to seek a resolution that helps the Sandy Hook families receive a positive outcome for the horror they endured,” lamented Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron.

The Onion’s bid for Infowars included $1.75 million in cash and other incentives. Meanwhile, First United American Companies, a company affiliated with Jones, bid $3.5 million. It’s unclear how exactly this resulted in the auction being called in The Onion’s favor.

“I’m going to not approve the sale to the purchaser. I think there’s a great lack of clarity here,” Judge Lopez said. He went on to say that the process, “while well intended, simply did not maximize value in any way based upon the record before me.”

The court-appointed trustee presiding over the auction originally said it would be live. Somehow, it was then switched to a sealed “best and final bids.” Jones and First United American Companies filed a lawsuit after The Onion was declared the auction winner. They claimed that The Onion had submitted a “Frankenstein” bid.

“We can celebrate the judge doing the right thing with the most ridiculous, fraudulent auction known in human history,” Jones said after the judge’s decision.

Fans of Infowars and Jones will certainly be happy about this ruling!

Key Takeaways: 

• Infowars’ Alex Jones gets good news from a judge.
• Judge rules that Infowars will not be sold to The Onion.
• The Onion had planned to turn Infowars into a parody website.

Sources: Breitbart News, CNN