On August 13, 2025, a Texas courtroom delivered a seismic jolt to the world of alternative media and American legal drama. Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, presiding in Austin, signed an order appointing a receiver to seize and sell the assets of Infowars—the controversial media platform helmed by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. The goal? To help pay the staggering $1 billion-plus in legal judgments that Jones owes to the families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, according to multiple reports including the Associated Press and other major outlets.
The ruling marks a dramatic escalation in a years-long legal battle that has pitted the families of Sandy Hook against Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems. The families, who won nearly $1.5 billion in judgments in 2022, sued Jones for defamation and emotional distress after he repeatedly claimed on air that the 2012 massacre—which left 20 first graders and six educators dead—was a hoax. Relatives of the victims testified in court about being terrorized and harassed by Jones’ supporters, as reported by the AP.
The judge’s order could see Jones locked out of his Austin studio within days of the order’s formal service. The receiver, Gregory Milligan, has been granted broad authority: he can change the locks at all locations containing Free Speech Systems assets, and law enforcement officers have been empowered to assist him and prevent interference. The assets in question include Infowars’ production equipment and intellectual property, all of which are now on the line.
But the story doesn’t end with a simple asset seizure. In a twist worthy of satire, the order appears to have revived an effort by The Onion, the well-known satirical publication, to purchase Infowars and transform it into a parody platform. “We’re working on it,” Ben Collins, chief executive of The Onion, posted on social media Wednesday, according to the AP. The Onion’s interest isn’t exactly new—they were named the winning bidder in a November 2024 auction for Infowars’ assets, though that sale was later rejected by a federal bankruptcy judge due to concerns about transparency and the true value of the bid.
For Jones, the Texas court’s move is just the latest in a series of legal setbacks. After the Sandy Hook families’ landmark victory in 2022, Jones and Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy. A federal bankruptcy judge in Houston subsequently ordered the company’s assets to be sold at auction to help satisfy the judgments. Yet the November 2024 auction, which pitted The Onion against a single other bidder affiliated with Jones, was conducted via sealed bids—no live bidding, no public process. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez ultimately tossed out the results, citing a lack of transparency and murky details about the actual value of The Onion’s bid. Jones, for his part, called the auction “rigged.”
Judge Lopez’s decision left the door open for the Sandy Hook families to pursue liquidation of Jones’ assets in state court, leading directly to this week’s order from Judge Gamble. Free Speech Systems now has five days, starting from the formal service of the order, to turn over its assets, with proceeds earmarked for the Sandy Hook families.
On his daily show Thursday, Jones was defiant. He declared the Texas court order “improper” and insisted he would keep broadcasting even if locked out of his main studio. “People want to hear this show,” Jones said, according to the AP. “I will continue on with the network. They can harass me forever. ... And they won’t get me off the air.” He also revealed he has another studio already set up, just in case he’s physically removed from his current base.
Jones further insisted that the state court order was not valid, arguing that Free Speech Systems’ assets remain under the control of the trustee in his ongoing bankruptcy case in federal court. He mentioned a state court hearing scheduled for September 16, 2025, and suggested Infowars could be shuttered next week or might continue operating until the hearing. “I wasn’t exactly sure what would be happening next,” he admitted on air.
The legal tangle is not just about dollars and cents. The Sandy Hook families’ lawsuits targeted Jones’ repeated falsehoods about the shooting, which they say inflicted years of pain and public harassment. In court, family members described being stalked, threatened, and doxxed by people who believed Jones’ assertions that the massacre was staged. The judgments against Jones and his company, nearly $1.5 billion in total, reflect the severity of the harm found by juries in both Connecticut and Texas.
Jones has not backed down from his legal fight, continuing to appeal the Connecticut and Texas state court judgments. He claims his statements were protected by free speech rights and has cited what he describes as improper actions by judges in both states. In 2022, Jones publicly stated that he believed the Sandy Hook shootings were “100% real,” but the damage from his earlier rhetoric had already been done.
The Onion’s potential acquisition of Infowars adds a layer of absurdity to the proceedings. If successful, the satirical outlet could turn one of the nation’s most notorious conspiracy platforms into a parody site—an outcome that would be both surreal and, perhaps, poetic. Ben Collins’ social media post—“We’re working on it”—suggests The Onion is still keen, though the legal and logistical hurdles remain significant.
For now, it remains unclear exactly when the judge’s order will be formally served on Free Speech Systems, or when the receiver will take over and begin selling off assets. Both the receiver, Gregory Milligan, and Jones’ lawyer, Ben Broocks, declined to comment on the timeline or liquidation plans when contacted by reporters.
This isn’t the first time Infowars has faced imminent shutdown. After The Onion was named the winning bidder in last year’s auction, a bankruptcy court trustee briefly shut down Infowars’ Austin studio and its websites for about 24 hours. Jones, undeterred, simply moved to a nearby studio and kept broadcasting. The sites resumed operation the next day as legal disputes over the auction continued to play out in court.
The next chapter in this saga will depend on how swiftly Judge Gamble’s order is enforced, whether The Onion can actually acquire Infowars, and if Jones can find new ways to keep his show on the air. The legal, financial, and—let’s face it—cultural implications of this case are enormous, touching on everything from the limits of free speech to the power of satire in American life. For the Sandy Hook families, the hope is that justice, however delayed, will finally be served.
