Donald Trump reportedly called the Fox Business Network after violence by his supporters in the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. But the executive will not allow the president to go on the air, deciding it would be “irresponsible” to provide him with a platform, the court filing has revealed.
Trump called to “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” trying to get on the program, according to a bombshell brief filed Monday by attorneys for Dominion Voting Systems. The company is suing Fox News and its parent, Fox Corporation, for $1.6 billion over alleged defamation.
But Fox Business Network President Lauren Petterson said the network believed it was “irresponsible to put him on the air” and that Trump’s words “could affect a lot of people in a negative way,” according to testimony cited in the briefing.
The host of the program, Lou Dobbs, is a staunch supporter of Trump and his baseless claim that he lost the 2020 presidential election due to fraudulent elections. Dobbs regularly interviewed Trump and his allies on air during his presidency.
Fox canceled Dobbs’ show just weeks after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The House select committee investigating the unrest did not know during its investigation that Trump had reached Fox that day, sources told CNN.
Fox defended himself in the Dominion defamation case by arguing that freedom of the press and freedom of speech are protected by the Constitution. But courts in the past have ruled that knowingly lying is not always protected.
Trump could not be reached for comment.