Political commentator Alex Jones is striking back at efforts to wrest his company, InfoWars, from his possession after a court ruled against him in a lawsuit filed by the families of victims who were murdered in the Sandy Hook school shooting.
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During Jones’ bankruptcy proceedings, Global Tetrahedron, parent company of satirical news site The Onion, submitted a winning bid to transform InfoWars into a parody site. Jones has reportedly filed his own lawsuit, calling the bid a “flagrantly non-compliant Frankenstein bid” and referring to it as “neither legal, moral or ethical,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
“Though the rules of the bidding process mandated that parties submit a specific purchase price, he said, Global Tetrahedron’s bid relied on a hypothetical promise of future payments from the Connecticut families, designed to be slightly higher than whatever First United bid.”
The Onion’s bid of $1.75 million was increased with contributions from the Sandy Hook families, who donated portions of their court-awarded damages, The New York Times reported.
Jones’ lawsuit contends that The Onio’s bid violated protocols in its collaboration with the Sandy Hook families.
Last Thursday, at an emergency hearing to contest The Onion’s bid, it emerged that First United had made a cash offer of $3.5 million. That is exactly twice the $1.75 million in cash offered by The Onion, a figure that was secret until the court battle dragged on. The Onion had sweetened the total value of its bid to $7 million with the backing of the Sandy Hook families, who essentially opted to put a portion of their potential earnings from the judgment against Mr. Jones toward The Onion’s bid.
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The Onion is planning to turn InfoWars into another parody site next year in which it pokes fun at “weird internet personalities” who supposedly traffic in misinformation and health supplements, according to Ben Collins, chief executive of The Onion’s parent company.
After questions were raised about the bidding process, Jones engaged in a bit of trolling, posting a picture of himself at InfoWars carrying a kitchen sink similar to a stunt Elon Musk pulled shortly after buying Twitter.
I’m LIVE At The Infowars Studios The Central Texas Command Center.
Let That Sink In!
Watch And Share Our Livestream:https://t.co/xu3E0UuhuG pic.twitter.com/w18xUrOV8B
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) November 15, 2024
Jones’ lawsuit contends that Global Tetrahedron’s bid should be disqualified and argues that First United Companies, the first runner-up bidder, should be awarded control of the company.
The lawsuit also seeks to bar Global Tetrahedron and the Sandy Hook families from using Jones’s intellectual property, including his name or persona, arguing that some of his intellectual property was improperly put up for sale.
Jones is now seeking an injunction of the sale.
“I will personally be harmed if this is not done, as Tetrahedron and the Connecticut Plaintiffs will not just tear down everything I have worked a lifetime to build, but they will seek to confuse my loyal following and drive them away from me,” Jones said in a signed declaration.
Jones placed Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, into bankruptcy and later filed for personal bankruptcy in 2022 following years of legal fights with the families of Sandy Hook victims. Jones had been ordered to pay $965 million in damages for claiming on Infowars that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax. He was later ordered to pay an additional $473 million in punitive damages.
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Jones’ bankruptcy proceedings came after the court awarded $1.5 billion to the Sandy Hook families who had sued him for defamation over his claims that the school shooting was an orchestrated event in which the victims were alleged “crisis actors.” The InfoWars host vowed to remain in place until “they turn the lights out.”
