The 2020 Voting Technology Crisis: Fox News’s Case for defaming Donald Trump’s lie about the 2020 election, a Delaware Superior Court Judge rules
The voting technology company sued Fox News after they promoted a false claim that voting machines were rigged in the 2020 election. The storming of the US Capitol in January of next year is where most of the alleged defamatory statements were made.
Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis said at a hearing Tuesday that invoking January 6 would be too prejudicial with the jury, and that the case isn’t about whether Fox News “influenced” the insurrection.
The trial is set to begin this week with jury selection, but the judge is issuing rulings before then on nearly two dozen motions that will set the stage. There is a demand of $1.6 billion in damages by the company. Fox says it didn’t cause any harm and the case is about press freedom.
In a major ruling last month, Davis rejected several legal defenses that Fox News hoped to use to either shut down the lawsuit, or to argue in front of the jury that it is not liable for the alleged defamation.
The judge ruled that Fox can’t bring up broadcasts where reporters accurately fact-checked Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, to prove that other broadcasts that amplified those lies weren’t defamatory.
Those broadcasts are not relevant because someone else told the truth, Davis said, and that is not proof that the case is not defamation.
When the defamation trial kicks off next week, Davis warned the network’s lawyers not to try to undermine or circumvent his rulings.
“I’ve sent you things that I’ve received,” Davis told lawyers from both sides, during a discussion about separate death threats targeting Dominion employees.
Investigating Dominion Voting Systems: Investigating a Murdoch-Fox News Defamation Case with an Outside Attorney
The judge overseeing Dominion Voting Systems’ massive defamation case against Fox News said Wednesday that he plans to appoint an outside attorney to investigate whether the right-wing network lied to the court and withheld key evidence, and sanctioned Fox’s attorneys over the matter.
He is going to appoint a special master to investigate whether Fox lied when it said Murdoch didn’t have a role in Fox News or that he was only an officer at Fox Corporation. The Murdoch distinction may have narrowed what Fox got from Murdoch as part of the discovery process.
The special master will look into what sanctions might be appropriate against Fox, including potentially instructing jurors in the case that Fox inappropriately blocked Dominion from obtaining key evidence.
The company denies wrongdoing and claims to have properly disclosed Murdoch’s roles in its financial filings. Dan said that nobody was deliberately withholding information from Dominion.