The Texas Third Court of Appeals granted conspiracy theorist Alex Jones a temporary reprieve late Wednesday, putting a stop to The Onion's planned acquisition of his Infowars media platform. The ruling stays a turnover order that would have allowed the satirical outlet to take control of the site and its trademarks, pending a May 28 hearing.
The decision effectively froze a scheduled Thursday hearing where a state receiver was expected to approve the deal. The Onion had reached an agreement last week to assume temporary authority over Infowars as part of a liquidation process triggered by more than $1 billion in defamation judgments against Jones. Those judgments stem from lawsuits filed by families of victims killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which Jones falsely claimed was a hoax.
Jones has appealed the defamation rulings to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the high court declined to hear his case. His lawyers have sought to block the Infowars transfer, arguing the deal is illegal. The Sandy Hook families' legal team asked the Texas Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court's stay, but no decision came before the scheduled hearing.
In a statement on Bluesky, The Onion CEO Ben Collins criticized the legal maneuvering, calling it a delay tactic. “This newly insane, unprecedented legal stalling does nothing but delay our deal with the receiver to take control of InfoWars,” Collins wrote. “We now expect new traps in Alex Jones’ amoral war to deny paying the Sandy Hook families, but we’re freshly surprised by the U.S. legal system’s appetite to put up with it.” He reaffirmed the outlet's commitment to the families, who have yet to receive any payment from Jones.
The Onion has already begun marketing Infowars merchandise spoofing Jones, including T-shirts and tote bags that replace the Infowars logo's “o” with an onion. Jones, who has called the takeover illegal, used the final broadcast of his show Thursday night to lash out at the deal and the lawsuits. “They’re turning the power off at midnight,” he said, vowing to return with a new network and threatening to sue his critics.
“I’m ready to die for this,” Jones declared. “You think taking money from me does something? It makes me want to strangle you spiritually. It’s a joke. It, like, empowers me.” He added, “We don’t just take lawsuits, we sue you and we win. And we have your whistleblowers, we have you. You’ve walked into our trap, because we don’t start fights. We finish them.”
As the show ended, Jones and his crew toasted to Frank Sinatra’s “Blue Eyes,” and he signed off with a promise: “The next phase starts. The real war begins now. It’s the nuclear age.”
The case adds another twist to a long legal battle that has drawn national attention, with implications for media ownership and defamation law. In a related development, the Appeals Court Rejects Trump's Bid to Overturn $83M Carroll Defamation Verdict, underscoring the judiciary's role in high-profile defamation disputes.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
