BRIDGEPORT — The families of eight victims of the 2014 Sandy Hook school shooting and one first responder seemed to have gotten the last laugh in the Alex Jones misinformation saga.
They agreed to use some of the $1.4 billion the families were awarded in a defamation lawsuit against the Infowars founder to help fund the acquisition of Jones’ company assets by the satirical publication The Onion, the families’ attorney Chris Mattei of Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder of Bridgeport announced.
The acquisition comes after the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee overseeing the Infowars’ parent company Free Speech Systems bankruptcy proceedings selected the news outlet’s bid. The amount of the purchase was not released for the auction approved by a Texas bankruptcy court.
Following the acquisition, The Onion will begin work to immediately transition the current site and is expected to launch the new platform in January 2025.
The winning bid calls for Chicago-based The Onion to purchase Infowars’ intellectual property, including its website, customer lists and inventory, certain social media accounts and the production equipment used to put Jones on the air. The Connecticut families agreed to forgo a portion of their recovery to increase the overall value of The Onion’s bid.
“We were told this outcome would be nearly impossible, but we are no strangers to impossible fights,” said Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting. “The world needs to see that having a platform does not mean you are above accountability – the dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for.”
In a separate announcement from The Onion, the online and print newspaper released details of the deal where Free Speech Systems was purchased. The Onion also announced its exclusive launch advertiser in the new venture will be Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country.
The Onion’s goal with the acquisition is to end Infowars’ relentless barrage of disinformation for the sake of selling supplements and replace it with The Onion’s relentless barrage of humor for good.
“The Onion is proud to acquire Infowars, and we look forward to continuing its storied tradition of scaring the site’s users with lies until they fork over their cold, hard cash,” said the publication’s CEO Ben Collins. “Or Bitcoin. We will also accept Bitcoin.”
In 2022, the families that brought the case against Jones in Connecticut secured a $1.4 billion verdict in their defamation lawsuit against Jones. A Texas bankruptcy court ruled on the liquidation of Jones’ assets in June, handing over control to an independent trustee tasked with selling them off to generate the greatest possible value for the families.
“From day one, these families have fought against all odds to bring true accountability to Alex Jones and his corrupt business,” Mattei said. “Our clients knew that true accountability meant an end to Infowars and an end to Jones’ ability to spread lies, pain and fear at scale.
“After surviving unimaginable loss with courage and integrity, they rejected Jones’ hollow offers for allegedly more money if they would only let him stay on the air because doing so would have put other families in harm’s way. They are heroes, and it has been an honor and a privilege to be their advocate throughout this fight.”
In addition to the Mattei, the eight Connecticut families were represented in the bankruptcy case by Alinor Sterling of Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder and Kyle Kimpler of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP.
“It’s fitting that a platform once used to profit off of tragedy will be a tool of education, hence our multi-year advertising commitment to this new venture,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “We’re proud to be a part of what comes next, not only in terms of staunching the flow of hurtful misinformation, but also for the potential this new venture has to help Everytown reach new audiences ready to hold the gun industry accountable for contributing to our nation’s gun violence epidemic.”
Alex Jones publicly claimed that the 2012 Sandy Hook School shooting was a “hoax” staged by actors, leading to widespread harassment and emotional distress for the victims’ families. Several families successfully sued Jones for defamation and emotional damages, demonstrating that his false statements multiplied and perpetuated their suffering and endangered both their physical safety and emotional well-being.
Everytown will continue to raise awareness on InfoWars’ channels about gun violence prevention and present actual solutions to our nation’s gun violence crisis, including bipartisan, common-sense measures and public safety initiatives.
“The Onion has a long history of helping the American public navigate some of the most difficult moments in American life, from our historic issue after 9/11 to our groundbreaking reportage after every American mass shooting. In that tradition, we hope the Sandy Hook families will be able to marvel at the cosmic joke we will soon make of InfoWars.com,” Collins said.
As for Jones, on Thursday, Nov. 14 around 8 a.m. EST he was live on his website describing how he was given short notice that the plug was imminently being pulled. Here is the text of a video he released on X as he was joined on Infowars by Steve Bannon, a former incarcerated Donald Trump adviser:
“I just got word 15 minutes ago that my lawyers and folks met with the U.S. Trustee of our bankruptcy this morning and said they were shutting us down even without a court order. The Connecticut Democrats with The Onion newspaper bought us.” (He was quoting a satirical comment from a fictional CEO of Global Tetrahedron, the parent company of The Onion, Bryce Tetrahedron.)
As of Thursday, the site inforwars.com has indeed gone dark.
