Judge Rejects Fox News Motion To Dismiss $1.6 Billion Defamation Lawsuit
On Thursday, a Delaware judge rejected a motion by Fox News to dismiss a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought against it by Dominion Voting Systems over claims about the 2020 presidential election.
In the ruling, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis said that the voting machine company had demonstrated that “it is reasonably conceivable that Dominion has a claim for defamation per se.”
Dominion filed a lawsuit earlier in the year against Fox News claiming that some of the media giant’s employees elevated false charges that Dominion had changed votes in the 2020 election via algorithms in its voting machines created in Venezuela to rig elections for Hugo Chavez. There was no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, a fact confirmed by several election officials across the US.
Dominion says Fox presenters brought on Trump allies who spread the claims, which were also amplified on Fox News’ social media platforms.
Judge Davis said that Dominion’s complaint “supports the reasonable inference that Fox either (i) knew its statements about Dominion’s role in election fraud were false or (ii) had a high degree of awareness that the statements were false.”
Judge Davis also said that despite emails from Dominion attempting to factually address Fox’s allegations, the media giant continued to report Dominion’s “purported connection to the election fraud claims without also reporting on Dominion’s emails.”
In a statement, Fox News said it remained committed to “defending against this baseless lawsuit and its all-out assault on the First Amendment.”
