The Onion, a satirical publication that skewers newsmakers and current events, said Thursday that it had won a bankruptcy auction to acquire Infowars, a website founded and operated by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. But in a twist all too typical of six years of often-chaotic litigation, within hours the bankruptcy judge temporarily halted the deal.

The Onion said its bid was sanctioned by the families of the victims of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, who in 2022 won a $1.4 billion defamation lawsuit against Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems.

The publication plans to reintroduce Infowars in January as a parody of itself, mocking “weird internet personalities” like Jones who traffic in misinformation and health supplements, Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron, said in an interview.

A lawyer for the Onion said the deal was secure. But during an emergency hearing hours after a triumphant announcement, Judge Christopher Lopez of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston put a hold on the sale until a hearing early next week.

Lopez cited concerns about a lack of transparency in the secret bidding process and a need to clarify which assets the winners are buying. One of the assets in dispute is Jones’ account on the social platform X.

The auction drew only two bidders. Walter J. Cicack, a Houston lawyer representing First United American Cos., a business associated with an online supplement store that bears Jones’ name, bid $3.5 million in cash for Infowars’ website, related websites and Infowars’ lucrative supplements business. In the Houston hearing, Cicack said the court-appointed trustee who managed the sale had informed him that he was the “backup bidder” and had lost. But he was not given an opportunity to increase his bid and was not told the amount of the winning bid, he said.

Auction dispute

The Onion group did not release the terms of the sale, but in the hearing it emerged that it had offered less in cash than First United. It won by including a “credit bid,” a pledge by Sandy Hook families who had sued Jones in Connecticut to forgo for now collecting on a portion of the damages due them.

While Lopez said he was not accusing the parties of doing anything improper, “I’m concerned about the process.” He scolded the trustee, saying the backup bidders “don’t even know the winning bid!”

In the hearing, Jones’ lawyer, Vickie Driver, said the Infowars website had been shut down and the trustee had begun securing the property.

Families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting, which claimed the lives of 20 first graders and six educators, sued Jones in Connecticut Superior Court in 2018 after he spread the baseless claim that the rampage was a fabricated pretext for confiscating Americans’ firearms.

Most of the families greeted The Onion’s potential takeover of an outlet that has caused them so much torment as a tactical triumph with an added bonus: It would irk Jones to no end.

‘A hilarious joke’

“We thought this would be a hilarious joke,” Collins said. “This is going to be our answer to this no-guardrails world where there are no gatekeepers and everything’s kind of insane.”

The Onion said in a tongue-in-cheek story that the site had cost “less than a trillion dollars.” (The article added that all of the diet supplements would be melted down “into a single candy bar-sized omnivitamin.”)

Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit dedicated to ending gun violence that was founded in the aftermath of the shooting, would advertise on a relaunched version of the site under The Onion. Collins declined to disclose the value of the advertising deal but said it was a multiyear agreement that would include banner advertisements and sponsored articles on the site, which would be redesigned to fit its new editorial direction.

The Onion purchase — backed by a wealthy gun control group and brokered by a Connecticut law firm steeped in Democratic politics — seems destined to fuel claims by Jones and his listeners that the lawsuits are the work of a “deep state” cabal set on taking him down.

Jones, whose lawyer did not respond to a request for comment for this article, has stoked drama around the auction, promoting “Save Infowars” discounts on the diet supplements and survival gear that have powered his business, calling on Elon Musk to enter the bidding and insisting that agents for hostile buyers had arrived at the door of his operation in Austin, Texas.

It is not likely that a takeover by The Onion would silence Jones. Over six years of litigation, he and his allies have worked to keep his income out of the families’ reach. He and his father, David Jones, have set up separate companies to scoop up profits from merchandise sales, and to alternate channels for his broadcast. The elder Jones runs a parallel supplements business, Dr. Jones’ Naturals, that his son promoted on Infowars, while emphasizing it is not owned by him. Alex Jones routinely insists that far-right backers are waiting to finance a comeback, should he lose his perch.

“Everything in this process — just like Trump being targeted by lawfare — has been as phony as a three-dollar bill,” Jones said on his website after the close of the auction Wednesday, using the same comparison he deployed in denying the Sandy Hook shooting. At the end of his update, he promoted his new sales channels, adding, “Everything will continue, thanks to listener support.”

The bankruptcy

As the bankruptcy played out, lawyers for the families discovered that Jones’ assets were worth only a tiny fraction of what they had estimated when they sued him. His personal and business assets, including Infowars’ production studio and the diet supplement business, were valued in court before the auction at roughly $9 million combined; additional Infowars equipment, real estate, guns and other personal property belonging to Jones remains to be sold.

Divided equally among the families, sale of all $9 million in assets would net less than $500,000 each, an amount that could dwindle by up to one-quarter, because Jones’ substantial legal bills must be paid first. There is potentially more money if the families can claim ongoing revenue from Free Speech Systems, as a previous court order allows them to do.

But Thursday’s announcement masked deep discord among the lawyers who sued Jones in Connecticut and those representing the families of two victims who sued him in Texas, over how the meager proceeds from the sales will be divided. The Connecticut legal team, led by Chris Mattei, claimed credit for the Onion deal.

While the alliance between Everytown and The Onion may seem like an odd fit, the two organizations share an interest in curbing gun violence, said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown.

“This was an opportunity for us to give The Onion the facts, the storytelling, the data and the research that’s at our fingertips,” Feinblatt said. “And for them to give us the creativity of how to turn all of that information into new messaging to a new audience.”

Collins said the relaunched Infowars might publish its own satirical stories that underscored the epidemic of gun violence in America in addition to sponsored content from Everytown.

Mattei said in a statement that taking possession of Infowars amounted to accountability for “Alex Jones and his corrupt business.”

“By divesting Jones of Infowars’ assets, the families and the team at The Onion have done a public service and will meaningfully hinder Jones’ ability to do more harm,” Mattei said.