Fox News’ Claims About Dominion Were False, Judge Rules—But Leaves Election Defamation Issue Up To Trial

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Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems are set to go to trial in their contentious $1.6 billion lawsuit over defamation claims after a judge declined to rule sooner Friday—but while the judge in the case left it up to a jury to decide if Fox committed defamation, he ruled claims made on the network about 2020 election fraud involving Dominion voting machines were clearly false.

Advertisements featuring Fox News personalities, including Tucker Carlson, adorn the front of the … [+] News Corporation building, March 13, 2019 in New York City.

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Key Facts

Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis denied motions by Fox News and Dominion for summary judgment—which would have meant the case was decided without a trial—but did rule on Dominion’s allegations that claims made about its voting machines on Fox News were false.

Dominion sued Fox in March 2021, alleging the right-wing network had defamed the voting company by pushing election fraud claims involving its machines despite knowing they were false, claiming Fox continued making the fraud claims for their own gain and to stop viewers from going to further-right networks like Newsmax and One America News.

The voting company asked the judge to issue summary judgment and rule in its favor to avoid the hassle of going to trial, in a court filing that gained national attention for containing dozens of quotes from Fox News anchors and high-level executives suggesting they did not believe the fraud claims.

Fox also asked the court to rule in the case ahead of trial, arguing the judge should find Fox did not commit defamation because on-air statements about election fraud were merely reporting on newsworthy events and are protected under the First Amendment.

The evidence in the case “demonstrates that is CRYSTAL clear that none of the Statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true,” Davis wrote, and found that Fox’s behavior constituted defamation per se, meaning the statements exposed the company “to public contempt, hatred, ridicule, aversion, or disgrace.”

Davis didn’t rule now on the question of “actual malice”—which would mean Fox made the statements knowing they were false—because he said there were “multiple genuine issues” involving the facts in the case on that, which should be left up to a jury to decide.

Dominion said in a statement to Forbes it was “gratified by the Court’s thorough ruling soundly rejecting all of Fox’s arguments and defenses, and finding as a matter of law that their statements about Dominion are false,” and Fox said it would “continue to fiercely advocate for the rights of free speech and a free press as we move into the next phase of these proceedings.”

What To Watch For

The trial in the Fox-Dominion case is slated to start on April 17 and run for five weeks. The trial is expected to be a high-profile affair, and Dominion has pushed for Fox Corporation chair Rupert Murdoch to testify, which Fox has opposed. Other major witnesses who are likely to testify include Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro and Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch. It’s still possible the case could be resolved before then if the two sides agree to settle, though so far there hasn’t been any indication that will happen. Sources at Fox cited by the Los Angeles Times in early March said there was “no sign a settlement is near,” and legal experts are divided on whether they think the case could end before it goes to trial. “There is an obvious endgame here … and is it to settle for a few hundred million dollars and walk away and never discuss it again,” media law expert Daniel Novack told the Hollywood Reporter, while former federal prosecutor Tim Heaphy told MSNBC he believes Dominion wouldn’t want to settle because “they want a lot of these facts to be laid bare in a courtroom in a public proceeding.”

Big Number

$1.6 billion. That’s how much Dominion is asking Fox to pay for its alleged defamation, though the final amount could end up being higher or lower based on what the jury decides. Fox has strongly opposed the $1.6 billion figure as being disproportionately high based on Dominion’s value as a company and its losses stemming from the fraud claims.

Key Background

Dominion’s case against Fox News is one of approximately a dozen defamation cases the company and rival Smartmatic have brought against right-wing figures and news, including a separate Smartmatic case against Fox and several of its anchors. (That case still remains pending.) The election fraud theory alleges the companies’ voting machines “flipped” votes from former President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden. The claims gained significant traction on the far-right after the 2020 election, though there’s no evidence to substantiate them. The Fox case has garnered the most attention of the company’s lawsuits, as recent court filings in the case have revealed dozens of comments from such figures as Carlson, Hannity and Rupert Murdoch casting doubt on the fraud claims. Carlson called the fraud claims “insane” and “absurd” and said he “hate[s] [Trump] passionately,” for instance, while Murdoch admitted he did not believe the fraud claims but did not stop election deniers from appearing on the network and said, “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing [the fraud claims] in hindsight.” Defamation cases have typically been hard to prove in court, as plaintiffs must prove that the alleged defamer acted with “actual malice” knowing their claims were false, but legal experts have speculated the substantial evidence of Fox officials discussing the fraud claims could be enough to meet that burden.

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