An appeals court in Travis County has effectively paused a deal for Global Tetrahedron, owner of satirical news outlet the Onion, to license the branding and intellectual property of conspiracy website Infowars.
A court-ordered receiver had orchestrated the deal to keep Free Speech Systems, Infowars parent company, afloat ahead of a possible sale in six months. The proceeds of the sale would go toward the families of Sandy Hook Elementary shooting victims, who courts have ruled were defamed by Infowars founder Alex Jones. He owes more than $1.4 billion in damages.
The deal was set to be discussed at a 2 p.m. hearing Thursday in the 459th District Court in Travis County. It remains unclear whether that hearing will proceed as planned.
The Third Court of Appeals stayed a turnover order to the court-appointed receiver tasked with recouping the judgment for Texas victims of Alex Jones, as it did previously for Connecticut families. There are two distinct judgments trying to be collected on, one from families who filed in Texas and one in Connecticut.
“It just seems like the courts are enabling an abuser to continue to abuse,” said Robbie Parker, who lost his 6-year old daughter Emilie Parker in the Sandy Hook shooting.
Parker and families in the original Connecticut case, representing 15 people, have been waiting nearly four years for the court to collect on the judgment. In that time Jones has appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case, upholding the judgment.
In the same time period, one of Parker’s other daughters will soon graduate from high school without any remuneration.
“We’ve spent her entire high school just waiting for the justice that was delivered to finally come through,” he continued.
Families in the Connecticut case asked the Supreme Court of Texas Thursday morning to allow the court-appointed receiver to continue to licensing trademarks, intellectual property and the web domain for InfoWars, and collect nearly a $1 million over six months.
“For reasons that have not been explained, the Texas appeals court is entertaining these desperate legal maneuverings that Alex Jones is taking,” said Chris Mattei, attorney for the Connecticut judgment families.
If approved, the maneuver would allow the license deal to continue, eliminating the appeals court’s previous stay on their receiver turnover.
Regardless of whether the Thursday hearing occurs, Mattei said the next 48 hours would be critical in determining the status of the case.