“The Onion” CEO Ben Collins and Everytown For Gun Safety President John Feinblatt joined ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America” for a sit-down interview on Friday, where he claimed to “own” Infowars and tripped over his words while falsely alleging his group offered the highest bid.
Explaining they thought purchasing Infowars in a bankruptcy auction would be “the funniest joke of all time,” Collins claimed Infowars’ “garbage” content has “hurt a lot of people” in the past couple of decades.
Feinblatt chimed in next, saying the Sandy Hook families who were awarded $1.5 billion in a defamation case against Jones “were behind” the alleged purchase of Infowars.
Stephanopoulos brought up the fact that US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez, who is presiding over the bankruptcy case, halted the sale of the company on Thursday due to frustrations about the process of the so-called auction.
The judge said, “No one should feel comfortable with the results of this auction.”
Responding to the ABC News reporter, Collins said, “Yeah, look. We won the bid. We own Infowars and we are very excited about that.”
Cutting the Onion CEO off, Stephanopoulos asked, “But, is it true that you didn’t have the highest bid?”
Stumbling over his words, Collins answered, “Uhh, we, we did. We did have the highest bid when you take into account the families’ concessions here. They made a concerted effort to make this the best and highest bid for everybody involved…”
Asking if they believe turning Infowars into an anti-gun satire website is “the best way to stop Alex Jones,” Collins said, “Absolutely. I used to be a disinformation reporter. I used to cover him from the other side of this. You can present as many facts as you want to Alex Jones and he’s just not gonna listen. But, if you make fun of these people in a way that cuts through and maybe show a funhouse mirror, basically, to what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to get you really afraid so you can buy some supplements…”
“He spread his funds out all over the place,” Stephanopoulos said next, asking, “Is there any real way to stop him?”
Collins responded, “You can try. It’s not worth giving up, in my opinion… There’s some hope in this. It’s felt pretty hopeless in the last couple of months recently for a lot of people, and we wanted to say, ‘Actually good things can happen. There can be a good fight to win and that’s why we wanted to be here.'”
Feinblatt called it “karmic justice” that his anti-gun group would be involved in the alleged purchase of Infowars.
During his live transmission Friday, Alex Jones explained the Sandy Hook families pledged the money he owes them as part of the sale without other bidders knowing credit could be used in the auction.
During a Thursday emergency hearing, Judge Lopez expressed concerns about how the auction was conducted because one party bid $3.5 million while a court-appointed trustee admitted The Onion offered a lower sum paired with the Sandy Hook families unpaid Jones settlement.
AP reported the rules of the auction were changed in a last-minute decision:
Walter Cicack, an attorney for First United American Companies, told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez that Murray changed the auction process only days before, deciding not to hold a round Wednesday where parties could outbid each other. Sealed bids were submitted last week, and the trustee chose only from those, Cicack said.
Former Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark posted to 𝕏 on Thursday evening, writing, “The U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee Program’s handling of the Alex Jones Infowars auction needs to be thoroughly investigated for propriety under the bankruptcy laws and for adherence to the First Amendment. I also give a shoutout to Roger Stone for putting together an alternate bid. Whether that bid by Stone was dealt with fairly needs to be examined carefully when the Trump DOJ is in place.”
Clark expressed during an interview that Trump attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz will likely investigate the Biden DOJ’s US trustee program.
During his live Friday transmission, Jones said a criminal investigation into the ordeal will launched and that the situation has intrigued President-elect Donald Trump, 𝕏 owner Elon Musk and other prominent figures who are now monitoring the outcome of the inquiry into the bankruptcy case.
Don’t forget undercover footage revealed the CIA & FBI played a roll in launching the Sandy Hook lawsuits against Jones in a form of lawfare meant to take away his First Amendment.
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