It sure must be handy to be able to lead a billionaire around by his dick. Elon Musk is using his wealth to stop a result Trump doesn’t like.
Last week, satirical news website The Onion announced acquiring InfoWars in a court-ordered sale.
Subsequently, Musk-owned social media platform X “entered an appearance” – a legal term expressing the intention to take part in proceedings – asking the federal court that it be included on any future communications about the case.
As a result, a federal bankruptcy judge temporarily halted the transfer of InfoWars to The Onion while ordering an “evidentiary hearing” to review the auction process aimed at ensuring the “process and transparency”.
Judge Christopher Lopez of Texas Southern District warned people against feeling “comfortable with the results of the auction” until the evidentiary hearing takes place next week.
On the one hand, The Onion CEO Ben Collins is insisting that his company has won the bid fair and square and that the only thing pending was “standard processes”. Collins plans to relaunch InfoWars as a “satirised version of itself” in January.
On the other hand, Jones, who is a vocal Trump supporter, has hailed the court’s review order. “The cavalry is here. Trump is pissed,” he said, implying that the president-elect is unhappy with the court-ordered sale of a news platform that has consistently supported the 45th US president.
So many questions. Why did a judge decide to include an unrelated third party in the proceedings? What gives Trump the right to interfere? Why is Musk doing the bidding of Trump? Why did they bother to have an auction if some random asshole can swoop in and invalidate the results?
Because our country is for sale. Once the courts are bought law and order becomes law by order.
Of course Musk is going to buy his way in. Of course Alex Jones will get a pass. Of course the Sandy Hook parents will get stiffed … again.
We are entering the Russian Model era. Oligarchies at the top, criminals running things and we the people at the bottom. Oh, wait, packs of dogs THEN us.
It is open corruption.
Get used to it.
The Rule of Law is over with for the next 4 years.
Better question: why are we letting a handful of people do whatever the fuck they want without any consequences, including enacting policies that will lead to mass suffering and death, and then complaining that an abstract, intangible entity like “the law” isn’t doing anything or meaning anything to people? Will enough people ever understand that they will only stop the same way Nazis and other fascists have always been?
The chaos and money driven corruption increases dramatically. How much more of this ‘rot at the top’ must occur before nothing decent and honest and caring has a chance to succeed in this society? Anyone who uses the phrase ‘nation of law and order’ should be laughed out of town. We are getting very close to the point where we should declare this country moribund and organize local ‘underground’ community benefit organizations that discard, condemn and withhold all support of the billionaires, banksters, RNC, DNC and rtwingnut xtian terrorist cults.
We will continue to work to enlighten even in these New Dark Ages.
Imagine that the auction went through the process and when the results didn’t satisfy Trump, they used their influence (money) to get a do-over.
Again, procedural comments and not legal advice:
First of all, the outside OP’s post hoc reasoning is blatantly unsupported. The debtor’s (InfoWars’) own objection caused the need for an evidentiary hearing. As soon as the bankruptcy judge heard enough to say “I need to hear from the Trustee and administrator and establish facts concerning the debtor/bidder’s allegations,” that hearing was going to be necessary. It had nothing to do with whether X was “being notified”…
…because that’s the right of every creditor. InfoWars probably owed X money (even if just a “certified n/u/t/c/a/s/e/ blue-check-mark” fee). Even if there’s no formal debtor-creditor relationship, darned near anyone can request notification of events from the bankruptcy court — it’s routine. I’ve done so at least two dozen times on behalf of IP licensors when a licensee declares bankruptcy, even though none of the prior court filings named my clients.
In short, the outside OP reflects almost complete ignorance of bankruptcy procedure. (Which isn’t that surprising, as it’s rather arcane — but is no basis for drawing dire conclusions.)
@2 raven said, “The Rule of Law is over with for the next 4 years.” I see no reason to hope this is over in 4 years, or even when Herr Trumpf dies.