Jones filed the motion for a temporary pause Monday with the 3rd Court of Appeals. In court documents he says The Onion wants to destroy the value of Infowars’ umbrella company, Free Speech Systems, and mislead his audience, citing new coverage and the comments of Onion executives.
“The licensee’s intentions are clear and, remarkably, reflect its stated desire — destroy the value of the FSS assets,” reads the motion.
The Onion plans to take over InfoWars with the backing of the Sandy Hook families and has said it would revamp the site into a platform for experimental comedy.
The Onion originally tried to buy InfoWars out of a bankruptcy auction in 2024. A federal judge later threw out the parody outlet’s winning bid over issues with the auction process.
Global Tetrahedron, the company behind the Onion, filed a motion to approve an agreement with the court-appointed receiver of Free Speech Systems, Jones’ former company, in a state district court in Travis County to license the logos, trademarks, domain and properties associated with Jones’ media property Infowars.
Under the deal, War Is Over LLC — an affiliate of Global Tetrahedron — would pay $81,000 per month to license Infowars.com and related intellectual property, according to court records obtained by the Austin American-Statesman.
The deal would need to be approved by district Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, who oversaw a lawsuit against Jones in Texas brought by Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, parents of victims in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Thursday, but Jones’ motion throws into question whether the hearing can go forward.
The Onion last week said it had hired Tim Heidecker, known for the comedic sketch show “Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” on Cartoon Network, to serve as creative director for the new InfoWars. The Onion’s website now features a prominent logo for InfoWars in which the “O” has been replaced with an onion.
In an interview, Ben Collins, The Onion’s CEO, said the company plans to evolve the InfoWars site into a space for “weird, artful, cool comedy.” He said they plan to parody Jones, but said he felt there was a shelf-life on that.
“They realize they’re going to handle this with care,” Collins said of the Sandy Hook families. “But also, we have the best comedy writers in the world, so we’re going to do something really cool.”