Washington Examiner

Federal bankruptcy judge Christopher M. Lopez rejected the Onion‘s bid to buy Infowars, the website of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, citing that the auction of the website and the bid lacked transparency and created an uneven playing field.

Chicago-based satirical publication, won the auction for the website while backed by the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. For years, Jones claimed that the 2012 school shooting was fake and the victims’ families were just actors convincing the world of the tragedy.

The families sued Jones in 2018 for defamation. After Jones refused to participate in the trial, judges in Connecticut and Texas found him liable by default, and a jury awarded the families $1.4 billion in damages in 2022. Jones is still appealing the ruling and he has since declared bankruptcy and sold his company, Free Speech Systems, in order to pay some of what he owes the families.

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