What you need to know about Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation trial against Fox
In Murdoch’s own words.
Dominion and Fox are set to face off in a historic defamation trial.
The voting equipment company has accused Fox News and Fox Corp, the right-wing mass media network part of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, of damaging its reputation while knowingly spreading lies about the 2020 US presidential election.
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A five-week-long trial begins Apr. 17 in Delaware. A jury will determine if Fox must pay Dominion $1.6 billion in damages. A key part of that decision is identifying who at Fox greenlit the defamatory coverage—Dominion asserts it went all the way to the top, despite evidence that internally Fox knew the coverage was false. Fox says the claim lacks evidence.
“The more complicit the whole organization is in perpetuating these known falsehoods, the more likely a jury would be to return a big dollar figure,” said UNC School of Law professor Mary-Rose Papandrea in a statement to Reuters.
It’s not just money on the line for Fox. The trial questions whether Fox discarded journalistic ethics in pursuit of higher viewership and ratings, damaging the company’s reputation—if not among its viewers, at least in the eyes of its shareholders.
Jury selection for the trial begins tomorrow (Apr. 13), but a series of pre-trial judgements and unearthed private documents have already shaped the legal battleground facing America’s most-watched cable news network.
Here’s what you need to know about the case.
Quotable: Dominion’s complaint vs Fox News
“Fox, one of the most powerful media companies in the United States, gave life to a manufactured storyline about election fraud that cast a then-little-known voting machine company called Dominion as the villain.” —The first sentence in Dominion’s complaint against Fox News and Fox Corp
Who on Fox News said what about Dominion?
🗣️ Sidney Powell: On Nov. 8, 2020, the former Trump lawyer appeared on Mornings with Maria, hosted by Maria Bartiromo, and Justice with Judge Jeanine hosted by Jeanine Pirro. On Bartiromo’s show, Powell said Dominion was “flipping votes in the computer system or adding votes that did not exist.”
On Pirro’s show that aired Nov. 14, Powell said about Dominion: “The money creating it came out of Venezuela and Cuba. It was created for the express purpose of being able to alter votes and secure the reelection of Hugo Chávez and then Maduro… It is one huge, huge criminal conspiracy that should be investigated by military intelligence.”
🗣️ Sean Hannity: On Nov. 30 during his eponymous show, the Fox host said in an interview with Powell: “Nobody liked Dominion Voting Systems. Nobody. ... Why would we use a system that everybody agreed sucked or had problems is beyond me.”
🗣️ Rudy Giuliani: On Nov. 12 on Lou Dobbs Tonight (a show that has since been canceled), Giuliani, then serving as Trump’s lawyer, said about Dominion: “It was formed really by three Venezuelans who were very close to the dictator Chávez of Venezuela and it was formed in order to fix elections.”
Dominion plans to prove Fox’s claims were “total BS,” and that Fox knew it
A nearly 200-page public document (pdf) filed by Dominion on Feb. 16 is filled with internal emails, texts, and other evidence revealing that the hosts at the network, producers, and even the company’s executive chairman, Rupert Murdoch, were aware that their election fraud claims were false. Here’s a sampling of the evidence.
🔎 Host Tucker Carlson texted one of his producers on Nov. 13, 2020, saying “there wasn’t enough fraud to change the outcome” of the election. On Nov. 16 he said to the producer: “Sidney Powell is lying.”
🔎 Co-host of The Five, Dana Perino, called the accusations leveled against Dominion “total bs,” “insane,” and “nonsense.”
🔎 Chief political correspondent at Fox, Bret Baier said to one executive on Nov. 5 after Maria Bartiromo tweeted about election fraud: “We have to prevent this stuff... We need to fact check.”
🔎 On Nov. 15, host Laura Ingraham said to her colleagues Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, “Sidney Powell is a bit nuts. Sorry but she is.”
🔎 In depositions, conducted under oath, no one at Fox said they believed the election was rigged. Sean Hannity said about Powell’s election narrative: “I did not believe it for one second.”
🔎 Even Fox owner and News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch recognized that the network’s hosts endorsed false claims about fraudulent voting in the 2020 election.
🔎 In response to Dominion’s requests for admission, Fox stated the claims made on the network about relations to election rigging in Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, and Maduro, were not true.
Why Dominion is suing Fox, by the digits
$921 million: Claimed overall damage to its business due to Fox’s false statements, found in an expert report commissioned by Dominion and unsealed Mar. 7
$88 million: Dominion’s claimed loss in profits
$600 million: Dominion’s claimed loss in future profits
20: Customers Dominion claims cut their contracts or declined renewals after the 2020 election
39: Election jurisdictions where Dominion claims it lost business opportunities due to Fox’s coverage
Fox will cite a landmark 1964 Supreme Court case in its defense
Fox has defended its coverage as newsworthy and called the suit an attack on freedom of the press. Its defense relies on a 1964 case, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, to back up its argument. The landmark US Supreme Court decision ruled that the First Amendment protects publishers, even if they issue libelous material, so long as the statements are not made with “actual malice.”
A couple wrenches have been thrown in Fox’s planned defense. Yesterday (Apr. 11), Delaware Superior Court judge Eric Davis ruled that Fox could not cite “newsworthiness” to defend its broadcast of misinformation, limiting its First Amendment line of argument. A series of other rulings have also placed limits on Fox: It cannot bring up broadcasted material from the network in which Trump’s claims were fact-checked, or internal emails where Dominion mentions issues with its own technology.
Dominion was also handed a limitation on its line of argument—Judge Davis ruled that the Jan. 6 insurrection cannot be raised during the trial, stating: “That may be for another court at another time, but it’s not for this court at this time.”
People of interest: Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch
On Sunday (Apr. 9), Fox attorneys disclosed to their Dominion counterparts that they had withheld information about the role of executive chairman of News Corp, Rupert Murdoch, at Fox News. Prior filings did not list him among the network’s officers, but the most recent filing says he is “executive chair” at Fox News, meaning he wore two hats across the organizations. It’s unclear whether the late disclosure may impact the case, in which executive responsibility plays a central role.
Meanwhile, Judge Davis has previously stated he would be willing to compel both Murdoch and his eldest son and CEO of Fox Corp, Lachlan Murdoch, to testify in the suit.
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