A state judge in Texas has appointed a receiver to take over and sell conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars assets to help pay the more than $1 billion he owes in legal judgments to the families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
The order by Judge Maya Guerra Gamble in Austin on Wednesday has the potential to shut Jones out of his studio in the coming days. It also appeared to restart an effort by The Onion satirical publication to buy Infowars and its assets and turn the platform into a parody site. “We’re working on it,” Ben Collins, chief executive of The Onion, said in a social media post Wednesday.
On his daily show Thursday, Jones called the Texas court order improper and vowed to keep broadcasting if he is locked out. He added he has another studio already set up in the event of such a scenario.
“People want to hear this show,” said Jones, who is based in Austin. “I will continue on with the network. They can harass me forever. … And they won’t get me off the air.”
Jones said he expected Infowars to be sold to someone or some entity that will keep it on the air.
The Sandy Hook families won nearly $1.5 billion in judgments in 2022 against Jones and Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, in lawsuits filed in Connecticut and Texas accusing him of defamation and inflicting emotional distress. They sued over Jones’ repeated comments that the 2012 school shooting in Connecticut that killed 20 first graders and six educators was a hoax. Victims’ relatives testified in court about being terrorized by Jones’ supporters.
Jones and his company both filed for bankruptcy in 2022. A federal Bankruptcy Court judge in Houston ordered Free Speech Systems’ assets, including Infowars’ production equipment and its intellectual property, to be sold at auction to help pay the Sandy Hook legal judgments.
The sale process was derailed when the bankruptcy judge, Christopher Lopez, rejected the outcome of a November auction in which The Onion was named the winning bidder over only one other proposal by a company affiliated with Jones. The auction was by sealed bids only and no live bidding was held.
Lopez had several concerns about the auction, including a lack of transparency and murky details about the actual value of The Onion’s bid and whether it was better than the other offer. Jones called the auction “rigged.” The judge rejected holding another auction and said the families could pursue the liquidation of Jones’ assets in the state courts where the defamation judgments were awarded.
The Texas judge’s order on Wednesday gave Free Speech Systems five days from when the order is formally served on the company to turn over its assets. Proceeds from any sales would go to the Sandy Hook families.
The judge also authorized the receiver to change the locks at all locations containing Free Speech Systems assets. She also authorized law enforcement officers to assist the receiver in his duties and prevent anyone from interfering with the receiver in taking possession of the assets.
It was not clear Thursday when the order would be served on the company, or when the receiver planned to take over the assets and sell them. The receiver, Gregory Milligan in Austin, did not return an email seeking information about the liquidation plans.
Jones’ lawyer, Ben Broocks, also did not return an email seeking comment Thursday.
Jones said on air Thursday that the state court order was not valid because Free Speech Systems’ assets are still under the control of the trustee in his bankruptcy case in federal court. He said there was a state court hearing set for Sept. 16. He said Infowars could be closed next week, or it may be able to keep operating pending the hearing. He said he wasn’t exactly sure what would be happening next.
Last November after The Onion was named the winning bidder, a bankruptcy court trustee shut down Infowars’ Austin studio and its websites for about 24 hours, but then allowed them to resume the next day as disputes over the auction continued in court. During the shutdown, Jones moved to a nearby studio and continued broadcasting.
Jones, who said in 2022 that he believed the Sandy Hook shootings were “100% real,” continues to appeal the Connecticut and Texas state court judgments against him, citing free speech rights and improper actions by judges in the two states.