Satirical news website The Onion has won a bankruptcy auction for Alex Jones' InfoWars, and has plans to turn it into something of a parody of its former self. The sale was confirmed both by Jones himself and The Onion leadership on Thursday. “I just got word 15 minutes ago that my lawyers and folks met with the U.
S. trustee over our bankruptcy this morning and they said they are shutting us down even without a court order this morning,” Jones said in a video posted to X/Twitter . The news follows years of litigation surrounding defamation lawsuits filed against Jones by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims.
In 2022, a Connecticut jury came down with a stunning verdict that ordered Jones to pay nearly $965 million to 15 plantiffs — which was only the second trial Jones faced over his claims surrounding the tragedy. The first saw him ordered to pay nearly $50 million , putting his overall legal damages at just around $1 billion. The sale was backed by families who sued Jones.
Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed in the 2012 shooting, told AP in a statement through his lawyers, "The dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for." The Onion has satirized Jones and his media empire countless times over the years and, in an appropriately satirical blog post about the sale on Thursday , it said that InfoWars "has shown an unswerving commitment to manufacturing anger and radicali.