Topline
A new tranche of court filings was unsealed late Tuesday in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation case against Fox News over fraud claims involving its machines after the 2020 election, expanding on previous documents in the case with more comments from high-ranking Fox News personalities and executives casting doubt on the fraud theory even as they pushed it on air.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson speaks during the 2022 FOX Nation Patriot Awards on November 17, 2022 … [+] in Hollywood, Florida.
Key Facts
The court filings contain dozens of exhibits with text messages, emails and other information gathered from Fox employees ahead of an anticipated trial in April, as Dominion accuses Fox News of pushing the fraud theories involving its machines on-air despite knowing they were false.
In a text message sent on November 17, 2020, anchor Tucker Carlson said “Sidney Powll is lying,” referring to the far-right attorney who primarily spread the Dominion fraud claims, calling her a “f–cking b–tch.”
Carlson, who’s now drawing scrutiny for downplaying January 6 and continuing to sow doubt in the 2020 election, also told his staff about Trump, “I hate him passionately,” and said in a January 2021 text message, “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights … I truly can’t wait.”
“What he’s good at is destroying things … He’s the undisputed world champion of that,” Carlson added about Trump in a text message sent in January 2021, after the unknown person he was texting with noted the ex-president’s failed business ventures.
In other text messages to an unknown recipient, Carlson asked whether there was “real evidence of significant voter fraud,” to which the person responded there was “not the amount to swing the election to Biden” and Carlson responded, “Yep. All true.”
Carlson also said the Dominion “software s–t is absurd,” said Powell was “making everyone paranoid and crazy, including me,” and told Powell herself in a text message on November 17, 2020, “If you don’t have conclusive evidence of fraud at that scale, it’s a cruel and reckless thing to keep saying.”
Fox Corporation chair Rupert Murdoch suggested to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott on January 21, 2021, after President Joe Biden’s inauguration, “Maybe Sean [Hannity] and Laura [Ingraham] went too far” in their post-election coverage, saying Fox was “still getting mud thrown at us” for its coverage and asking if it was “unarguable that high profile Fox voices fed the story that the election was stolen and that January 6th an important chance to have the result overturned.”
Scott described far-right attorney Rudy Giuliani’s fraud claims, which involved Dominion, as “terrible stuff damaging everybody” to Murdoch in a November 19 email, to which Murdoch responded, “yes Sean and even [Jeanine] Pirro agrees.”
Murdoch also described Trump as appearing “increasingly mad” in an email following the 2020 election, with Giuliani “encouraging … and misleading him.”
Chief Critic
Fox News has heavily opposed Dominion’s allegations, defending the network’s statements about election fraud as reporting on newsworthy events that’s protected under the First Amendment. The network has accused Dominion of “cherry-picking” its evidence in court filings, and in a statement Tuesday night said the newly released exhibits show “Dominion has been caught red handed using more distortions and misinformation in their PR campaign to smear FOX News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press. We already know they will say and do anything to try to win this case, but to twist and even misattribute quotes to the highest levels of our company is truly beyond the pale.”
What To Watch For
The trial in the Dominion Fox News case is scheduled to start on April 17 in Delaware state court, assuming a settlement or ruling is not reached before then. Both sides have filed requests for summary judgment, which means the judge in the case would issue a ruling instead of holding a trial, and there will be a hearing on March 21 to determine whether that will happen. Dominion is asking Fox to pay $1.6 billion in damages if the network is found to have defamed the voting company, which would require the court to rule Fox acted with “actual malice” and made the false claims about Dominion’s machines knowing they were untrue. A second defamation lawsuit against Fox News is also still pending from rival voting company Smartmatic, which a judge ruled in February could move forward and is asking for $2.7 billion in damages.
Key Background
Dominion sued Fox in March 2021, alleging the right-wing network pushed fraud claims involving its machines for its own profit and to boost viewership despite knowing what they were saying was false. The case has gained steam in recent weeks in light of the court filings suggesting Fox hosts knew the fraud claims they were making were false, with previous filings containing such statements as Carlson calling Powell’s claims “insane” and Fox Corporation executive Raj Shah describing the theory as “mind blowingly nuts.” Excerpts of Murdoch’s testimony were also released in which the Fox Corp. chair said he didn’t believe the election fraud claims, but also didn’t stop election deniers from appearing on the network. “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight,” Murdoch testified.
News Peg
The new Dominion filing comes as Carlson has come under widespread scrutiny following his show Monday night, in which he aired January 6 footage he obtained from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and used it to downplay the attack. Carlson alleged the “video record does not support the claim that January 6 was an insurrection,” likening the rioters to peaceful “sightseers.” He also continued to sow doubt in the 2020 election results, claiming, “It is clear the 2020 election was a grave betrayal of American democracy.” (There is no credible evidence to support claims of widespread election fraud.) Carlson’s comments have drawn widespread pushback even from Republicans, with Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger calling the Fox host’s coverage “outrageous and false” and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) saying he “want[s] to associate myself entirely” with Manger’s statement. Carlson hit back at his critics during his show Tuesday night, saying GOP senators who opposed his January 6 coverage “degrade[d] themselves” and were “telling such obvious lies and calling for censorship.”
Further Reading
Fox Unlikely To Settle With Dominion Over Election Lies As High-Stakes Trial Nears, Experts Say (Forbes)
Murdoch Admits Fox News Hosts Pushed False Election Fraud Claims (Forbes)
Read More
Alison Durkee