(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The never-ending Alex Jones bankruptcy story continues this afternoon in a Texas courtroom. As of this writing, the shitposter’s lawyers are challenging Chapter 7 Trustee Christopher Murray’s selection of Global Tetrahedron, the parent company of “The Onion,” as the winning bidder of the auction for Free Speech Systems.
As with most Jones productions, it’s a shitshow. His lawyer spent several minutes objecting to the admission of documents Jones himself signed and submitted to the court in this case. Judge Christopher Lopez, who has sounded exhausted by the Jones cases for more than year (and he’s been at this shit since April of 2022), admitted them, but not for the authenticity thereof.
Jones recently fired his longtime counsel Vickie Driver, replacing her with experienced bankruptcy lawyer Shelby Jordan. Jordan immediately turned around and sued Murray, Global Tetrahedraon, and even the Sandy Hook parents themselves.
The complaint alleged gross malfeasance by the trustee, attacked the underlying state court judgments, and insisted that the sale of the IP assets was definitionally illegal:
Mr. Jones has property rights in the Jones IP Rights, which he brings this action to both obtain a declaration of ownership of, and to protect through injunctive relief against anyone’s unauthorized use thereof, including without limitation, Alex Jones’s unique and personal name, image, likeness, unique voice, and/or other personal identifying attributes associated with Alex Jones which belong to him personally and cannot be sold. Among other things, consumers will suffer massive market confusion if his personal rights are marketed by anyone other than himself.
Jordan made clear that this claim extended to cover the Infowars back catalog to include any recording that included Jones’s name, image, or voice. He also filed an objection to the sale repeating his scurrilous allegations against Murray.
Within hours Murray docketed a blistering response noting that “The Debtor does not own the assets the Trustee seeks to sell pursuant to the Sale Motion, they are property of FSS and his personal bankruptcy estate—which he notably failed to include on his sworn Schedules notwithstanding being given multiple opportunities to amend.”
Specifically, on June 28, 2024, just after he converted his case from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7, Jones signed and docketed a schedule of all his assets and debts. And when asked to declare any “Patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and other intellectual property, Examples: Internet domain names, websites, proceeds from royalties and licensing,” he checked the box that said “no.”
“It is beyond peradventure that Jones was required to schedule the FSS IP Assets if, as he contends, they are his property—and indeed, so personal to him that they cannot be owned by another,” Murray argued, observing that “He takes a different position now in an unsworn pleading because it is expedient for him to do so. Concealment of assets and such gamesmanship is strictly prohibited under the Bankruptcy Code and related laws.”
And that schedule is the document Jordan objected to entering into evidence at this afternoon’s hearing during Murray’s direct examination on the topic of how he structured the assets for the sale.
Incidentally, Murray testified that The Onion agreed to take Alex Jones’s personal handles out of the auction so they could stop wasting time on this dumb issue. And the lawyers for Ex-Twitter said yesterday that the dispute over the sale of the personal social media handles had been resolved by stipulation (dashing the hopes of the Infowars fans who had been led to believe that Elon Musk was going to ride to the rescue).
This evening, Jordan will get to yell at Murray for a couple hours on cross. And then — god willin’ and the crick don’t rise! — this nonsense will be over. Drink!
Alexander E. Jones and Official Committee Of Unsecured Creditors [Docket via Court Listener]
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.