Dominion Voting Systems reached a settlement with Fox News on Tuesday in a massive defamation lawsuit against the media giant, the same day the blockbuster case was set to go to trial.
“Without you, the parties will not be able to resolve the situation,” Delaware Supreme Court Judge Eric M. Davis told the jury of 12 people, who were sworn in earlier in the day.
Terms of the settlement were not made available, but the ruling would allow Fox to avoid a potentially embarrassing trial and protect Fox Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch and top Fox News hosts from testifying. But the deal would also insulate the network from legal consequences related to the spread of misinformation during and after the 2020 presidential election — at least for now.
The defamation trial had been set to begin Monday but was abruptly postponed Sunday night, prompting Fox News reports to call for a last-minute settlement. Dominion previously insisted that the company would be terminated only if Fox apologized and admitted to spreading falsehoods.
Mary Altaffer/File via Associated Press
Dominion is suing the network for $1.6 billion in damages, alleging Fox News willfully lied about the 2020 race, including that the company’s voting machine was hijacked. Media advocates hope the landmark case will delve into the spread of misinformation and the complexities of American libel law, questions that have grown in recent years.
Fox said the actions were protected under the First Amendment and that the hosts had “an absolute right to cover the news.” But a flood of bombshells has emerged in court filings in recent months, showing how senior executives at the network are hesitant about Donald Trump’s claims of election fraud. In one of his depositions, Murdoch himself said under oath that some of the hosts “endorsed” false conspiracy theories, but he moved to distance his comments from the network.
Fox faces a separate defamation suit from Smartmatic USA Corp. The voting machine company has sued for $2.7 billion over claims similar to Dominion’s.