Elon Musk’s X comes as Alex Jones affiliate tries to stop sale of Infowars – National
A company affiliated with the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones asked a federal judge on Monday to disqualify an offer from the satirical media outlet The Onion buys Infowars from Jones at a bankruptcy auction, alleging fraud and collusion.
First United American Companies, affiliated with a Jones website that sells dietary supplements, was the only other bidder at the recent auction, offering US$3.5 million. In a filing with federal bankruptcy court in Houston, a lawyer for the company asked the judge to declare it the winning bidder instead of The onion.
The attorney, Walter Cicack, claimed the bankruptcy trustee overseeing the auction improperly colluded with The Onion and the families of the victims in the case. Shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut by naming The Onion as the successful bidder. Cicack also alleged the trustee violated sales rules set by the judge and said the company’s cash offer was twice that of The Onion.
FILE – Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones speaks to the media after arriving at the federal courthouse for a hearing before a bankruptcy judge Friday, June 14, 2024, in Houston.
David J. Phillip / Associated Press
The bankruptcy auctions took place last week as part of the liquidation of Jones’ assets, including Infowars. Proceeds from the sale will be donated to Sandy Hook families and other creditors. Jones filed for bankruptcy in 2022 after being ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in defamation lawsuits filed by the families for speaking out about the 2012 shootings that killed 20 children and six educators. a hoax staged by actors to increase gun control.
Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion’s parent company, Chicago-based Global Tetrahedron, released a statement Monday through a spokesperson.
“We’re obviously disappointed that he’s going on a rampage creating conspiracies, but we’re also not surprised,” he said, referring to Jones.
The bankruptcy trustee appointed to oversee the sale, Christopher Murray, declined to comment Monday. The Sandy Hook families’ attorney, Christopher Mattei, also declined to comment.
In a response filed in court later Monday, Murray called the allegations “baseless.” He said First United American’s motion to disqualify The Onion was “an inappropriate attempt by a disappointed bidder to influence an otherwise fair and open auction process.”
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Murray also wrote: “Having failed in its earlier efforts to intimidate the trustee and his advisors into accepting its lower offer, FUAC now alleges, without evidence, collusion and bad faith in an attempt to induce the court in error and to disqualify its only competitor in the auction. .”
Murray filed separate court papers Monday asking the judge to approve the sale of Infowars to The Onion.
An additional step to resolve in the sale came last week, when lawyers for X Corp., the group created by Elon Musk when he bought Twitter, also filed a notice to appear in Jones’ bankruptcy case.
The filing, first reported by Mother Jones, is dated November 14 and does not disclose the purpose of X’s interest in the matterother than saying they are an interested party and have requested all relevant documents in the case.
Before Musk bought Twitter, Jones and Infowars had been banned from the platform for violation of the terms of use. However, Musk reinstated Jones once Twitter (now X) was under his control.
Collings used X to call out Jones this weekend over his claims that the auction had been formally canceled.
“Clearly, when the current operators of InfoWars began operating as a business again, they used this to falsely claim that the auction had been canceled and allege some truly outlandish things,” he wrote.
The filing Monday by First United American Companies included the official offer submitted by The Onion, revealing that it offered $1.75 million for Infowars as well as certain incentives from the Sandy Hook families who won their defamation lawsuit against Jones . The families agreed to forfeit up to 100% of their share of the proceeds from the sale of Infowars and return it to Jones’ other creditors.
With the families’ offer, Jones’ other creditors would get a total of $100,000 more than if First United American Companies bought Infowars, according to The Onion’s bidding document.
Murray told the bankruptcy judge during a court hearing Thursday that the families’ incentives made it a better deal than the Jones-affiliated company.
“The creditors ended up in a much better situation,” Murray told the judge, adding that one of his responsibilities was to maximize value for creditors.
Judge Christopher Lopez, who said he had questions about the sale process and concerns about transparency, ordered a hearing to see exactly what happened with the auction and how the trustee chose The Onion. A date for the hearing has not been set.
Jones criticized the sales process on his show and on his social media sites, calling it “rigged” and a “fraud.”
Over the weekend, Collins posted a series of comments about the auction on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“In short: we won the bid and – you won’t believe this – the old InfoWars people didn’t take it well,” he wrote.
Collins said last week that The Onion planned to turn the Infowars website into a parody site, targeting conspiracy theorists and other social media personalities while promoting gun violence prevention efforts.
Cicack also said in Monday’s court filing that the trustee inappropriately changed the bidding process “from a live auction to a secret process.” Cicack said that after the sealed bids were submitted on November 8, it was planned that there would be a round of live auctions on November 13.
But instead, he said, Murray decided to ask both bidders to submit another bid as a last and best proposal, which they did. Murray then chose from these final bids without holding a live auction. He alleged Murray violated auction rules.
Lopez’s 20-page order on sales procedures, issued in September, made such live bidding optional. And it gave Murray broad powers to proceed with the sale, including the power to reject any offer, regardless of amount, that was “contrary to the best interests” of Jones, his company and their creditors.
Cicack called the Sandy Hook families’ share of The Onion’s offering “Monopoly” as worthless money.
“It is also the product of unconscionable collusion with the Onion to ‘rig’ the auction in an effort to achieve a specific outcome desired by Connecticut families,” he wrote.
— with files from Global News
