WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) – A voting machine company’s defamation case against Fox News for spreading false allegations about the 2020 presidential election will go to trial after a Delaware judge on Friday allowed a jury to decide whether the conservative network aired the claim. with real evil, the standard to prove libel.
Superior Court Judge Eric Davis ruled that neither Fox nor Dominion Voting Systems presented a credible argument that Fox acted maliciously without the case going to a jury. But he also ruled that the statements challenged by Dominion constituted defamation “per se” under New York law. That means Dominion does not have to prove damages to establish Fox’s liability.
“The evidence developed in these civil proceedings demonstrates that (it is) CRYSTAL clear that none of Dominion’s claims regarding the 2020 election are true,” Davis wrote in the summary judgment ruling.
The decision paves the way for an initial trial in mid-April.
Dominion is suing the network for $1.6 billion, claiming Fox is guilty of repeatedly spreading false claims about the company’s machines and accompanying software. Court records and testimony reveal that many Fox hosts and executives disbelieved the claims but continued to air them.
Fox said it was only listing very important allegations. The coverage fed an ecosystem of misinformation about former President Donald Trump’s 2020 loss that has continued ever since.