Satirical publication The Onion recently bidded to buy conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ company Infowars. This bid was backed by the Sandy Hook Elementary School victims’ families, to whom Jones owes more than a billion dollars for his conspiracies.

The Onion, which publishes ironic stories critiquing politics, has to compete with another company that submitted a higher bid. That company, First United American Companies, is affiliated with Jones and his business selling dietary supplements. Although they did not submit the largest bid, The Onion’s bid was a better deal, according to trustee of the auction, Christopher Murray, because of the support of the Sandy Hook families. Though they were not outbid, First United American Companies lost the auction due to the value of the families’ backing. This was a tactical victory, with many of the families emphasizing that the sale to The Onion would bother Jones very much.

“We thought this would be a hilarious joke. This is going to be our answer to this no-guardrails world where there are no gatekeepers and everything’s kind of insane,” owner of The Onion’s parent company Ben Collins said in an interview with the Associated Press. Collins cited another reason for the sale to The Onion, one that it would stop Alex Jones from continuing to release misinformation.

“The dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for,” Robbie Parker said in a statement provided to him by his lawyers. Parker’s daughter Emilie was killed in the shooting in Connecticut in 2012.

Collins said that they plan to, in January, turn Infowars into a site to create satire about conspiracy theorists and “weird internet personalities, along with information relating to gun violence prevention.

But, all this turned on its head when, in an impromptu hearing, the judge decided to put the sale on hold due to issues of a lack of transparency. There existed an insufficient amount of clarity surrounding the bidding process and which assets were actually being sold. One of the items up in the air is Alex Jones’ account on X, formerly Twitter.

The further the sale is delayed, the less each family will get in compensation from Jones, since they had sued over his disinformation of the Sandy Hook Shooting. Jones had claimed that the entire event was staged in order to take away gun rights. He later admitted to the truth that he had spread this disinformation on purpose, along with other disinformation about other mass killings.

Collins hopes for a better end to this situation. “They’re all human beings with senses of humor who want fun things to happen and want good things to take place in their lives. They want to be part of something good and positive too.”