Moments before opening arguments were to begin in one of the largest defamation trials in US history, Fox News agreed to settle a lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems, a voting machine company, that accused it of spreading false statements about your business after the 2020 presidential election.
Dominion officials accused the conservative news station and its management of making false and damaging claims about the company after the 2020 presidential election, when conspiracy theories surrounding the election and its results were validated by Republican politics. , amplified by Donald Trump and his allies, and by nearly every right-wing media outlet, including Fox’s far-right competitors.
“The parties have settled their case,” Judge Eric Davis announced today, April 18, approximately two hours after jurors were already sworn in. They were immediately excused after their announcement.
They settled for $787.5 million, roughly half the $1.6 billion originally requested by Dominion.
Before trial, a judge ruled that statements about the company in the wake of the 2020 presidential election were false. Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis claimed in a ruling last month that he is “CRYSTAL CLEAR” that “none of the Dominion-related statements in the 2020 election are true.”
Throughout the lawsuit and proceedings, Fox’s lawyers argued that the network had a duty to report newsworthy claims, especially those endorsed by a sitting president.
In the days after Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election, figures close to him launched conspiracy theories and other unsubstantiated claims about Dominion, alleging that the company was responsible for “switching” or rigging votes, that it had ties to Hugo Chávez and Venezuela, and that he had bribed electoral officials.
The evidence shows that the main personalities of Fox, its producers and its leadership knew that these reports on electoral fraud were false, but even so they were transmitted without comment.
