Onion’s Infowars auction bids are in limbo for a few more weeks

A judge on Monday set a hearing next month on The Onion’s bid for Infowars, keeping the satirical news site’s purchase of Alex Jones’ media company in limbo for at least a few more weeks.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez scheduled another hearing at an unspecified date in December to determine whether the purchase of Infowars at auction on The Onion and its parent company, Global Tetrahedron, was fair. He also declined to issue a temporary restraining order, at Jones’ request, to disqualify the satirical website’s bid.

“I want a fair and transparent process and let’s see where that process goes,” Lopez said. “Everybody wants their day in court.”

The Onion announced on November 14 that it had bought Infowars at auction with plans to turn it into a website parodying figures like Jones. The Onion’s bid was supported by some families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims, whose successful defamation suit against Jones forced him into bankruptcy.

But Jones and the losing bidder, First United American Companies (FUAC), accused the administrator overseeing the auction of colluding with The Onion and the Sandy Hook families. FUAC — a company affiliated with one of Jones’ online supplement stores — said it had committed twice as much cash as winning bid. However, the onion bid contained a promise from the families to give up some of the profits so that other creditors would get more money than the higher cash offer, which the receiver judged to be better for the creditors.

Although Infowars was taken down the day the auction sale was announced, it has since been returned to Jones as litigation over the auction process resumes, and Jones has continued to broadcast.

Elon Musk’s X Corp. has also become involved in the case and filed a notice of appearance. As NBC News reported“X Corp. is presumed to be an interested party because Jones uses X to broadcast his show and the case involves the potential transfer of Jones’ X handle in the sale.”

Lopez, the bankruptcy judge, will ultimately decide whether Infowars’ sale to The Onion should be approved for order a new auction of Infowars’ intellectual property and website, or to assign Infowars to FUAC, the backup bid.