Alex Jones’ media empire hits the auction block today: NPR

Alex Jones could lose his Infowars media company when it goes up for auction today.

Live bidding happens behind closed doors to everything from Jones’ desk, microphones and online vitamin supplement store to his “extensive office fitness equipment” and “Terradyne armored truck.”

The proceeds go to pay Sandy Hook families who won defamation cases against Jones after he spread false conspiracy theories that the 2012 school shooting never happened. Jones owes the families about $1.5 billion in damages for the pain and suffering they endured after some of his supporters harassed and threatened them for years. At best, the families expect to collect just a tiny fraction of that amount.

The future owner of Jones’ media empire will become public once court papers are filed. All bidders in the auction have signed confidentiality agreements, and the winning bid will ultimately be selected by the court-appointed receiver in the Jones bankruptcy case.

Jones has told his viewers that Infowars and its parent company, Free Speech Systems, could be shut down as soon as today, depending on whether “a hostile buyer gets it at auction” or “if the good guys are able to win the auction ” .”

But later, on X.com, he was defiant, insisting that no matter what, he will not be silenced.

“All you lefties celebrating the end of Alex Jones and Infowars, you are fools,” Jones said. “I have offers all over the country, major networks. We got sponsors back in the studios (…) All I get is love and our audience exploded. So just watch. Look what already happened when they took Tucker (Carlson) out of Fox (News), he got ten times bigger, my God, I can’t imagine how it’s going to blow up in your face.

For several reasons, some of Jones’ friends as well as his enemies are in on the bid.

Republican operative and Trump confidant Roger Stone was among those who talked about putting together a conservative group of bidders. He declined to comment on the outcome of those efforts, but he echoed Jones’ sentiments about continuing to exercise his right to free speech.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen in the bankruptcy proceedings regarding Infowars,” Stone said, “but I do know that eventually Alex Jones will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes, and he’ll end up with a national audience.”

At least a few left-leaning bidders say they pulled out after being told many higher bids were already in the mix.

Jeff Rotkoff, who runs a progressive media company in Texas called “The Barbed Wire,” resigned after it became clear that several bids from left-leaning parties are already “in the six- and seven-figure range.”

“We talked to a lot of people who shared our goals and had quite a bit more money, and it was very clear that we weren’t going to be able to put together a winning bid,” Rotkoff said. “So instead, we’re rooting for anyone who wants to undo the damage Alex Jones has done to our state, our country and our planet.”

Rotkoff says he’s cautiously optimistic, but adds, “There are also billionaires on the other side” who want to help Jones retain his audience, “so it sounds like a bouncy ball to me.”

Whoever wins the auction is not necessarily the highest bidder. The U.S. trustee has broad discretion to “determine the highest or otherwise best bid or bid” (emphasis added) according to auction firms Tranzon Asset Advisors and ThreeSixty Asset Advisors.

Whether Jones succeeds in getting hired to work for new owners of his company, or whether he goes to work elsewhere, the Sandy Hook families will continue to be entitled to his future earnings. The bankruptcy judge has ruled that because Jones’ conduct was willful and malicious, he will not get the clean slate that bankruptcy usually provides. That means the families can keep chasing him until he pays the $1.5 billion he owes them.

“They have a hunting license to go after any asset or any income that he has, regardless of source,” says Bruce Markell, a former U.S. bankruptcy judge and now Northwestern School of Law Professor.

Attorneys for the Sandy Hook families did not respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, Jones is appealing the rulings against him in Connecticut and Texas, and just this week he again refused to defame the Sandy Hook families, despite repeatedly saying on his show that they were just actors, “fake crybabies” and “played different roles”. by different people,” suggesting it was all just an elaborate plot to shore up support for gun control.

“I almost never even talked about that story,” Jones said Monday, X, speaking of what he called “the sham trials.”

As he has done many times in his career, Jones also repeated baseless conspiratorial claims that “The Democratic Party runs it all. The FBI, they don’t understand that they cooked it all up with the CIA.”