Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox News for $1.6 billion, saying that the network had spread false information about the company. Fox News has decided to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787 million to settle with them.
In March 2021, Dominion sued Fox News and Fox Corporation for slander and asked for $1.6 billion in damages. Dominion says that Fox News hurt the company’s reputation when it said that former President Trump and his lawyers said that the 2020 election was rigged with Dominion’s voting machines.
Fox News says that what Trump and his lawyers say about the First Amendment and freedom of speech is so important that it needs to be heard. The company said that the fake information was spread by Fox News and its bosses to keep people watching until the 2020 election.
The trial was supposed to start on Tuesday after being put off for a day, but a deal was made the day before.
After Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis swore in the 12 jurors and two alternates who would hear the case, the meeting was put off for almost two and a half hours on Tuesday.
The meeting was meant to start at 4, but just before that, Judge Davis said that an agreement had been made.
Davis told the jury after they made their choice, “The case is over, and it’s over because of you.”
Your presence is required right now. Davis also told you how important you were to the deal.
Tuesday, the two sides reached a deal that ended a trial that was supposed to last six weeks. This means that no one from Fox News, including Rupert Murdoch, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and others, will have to testify about how the network covered the 2020 election.
During the meeting, people thought that Dominion would present about 7,000 pieces of evidence and Fox would present about 5,000 pieces of evidence.
Davis had fined Fox News, said the network had a “credibility problem,” and criticized the lawyers who represent Fox News for not being “direct” with the court a week earlier. This happened after it was discovered that Fox News may have “lied to the court” by trying to keep Dominion from knowing that Murdoch worked at Fox News.
Justin Nelson, an attorney for Dominion, said that the company made a deal with Fox at the last minute for $787.5 million.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Dominion CEO John Poulos said that Fox had given in, which would be bad for the company, its employees, and the people it serves. An old saying goes, “That can never be made up for.”
Poulos said, “I really can’t thank the people who run our elections enough.” This says everything.
Stephen Shackelford, Dominion’s lawyer, said that even though the company has a deal with Fox, it will still go to court to protect its name.
No, not at this time. Shackleford had earlier said, “We have some other people who are going to have to answer for something.”
A representative for Fox said the company is “pleased” with the deal and agrees with the court’s ruling that “certain claims about Dominion” were false.
A Fox spokesperson said:
We’re glad that our case against Dominion Voting Systems is over. We agree with the court that some of Dominion’s claims are not true. Fox has shown that it wants to do good news by making this deal. Now that we have chosen to settle our civil case with Dominion outside of court, the country should be able to rest easy.
The New York Times says that Fox Corporation will have “cash and cash equivalents” worth nearly $4.1 billion by the end of 2022.
In an interview released by the Times on Tuesday, Martin Garbus, a spokesperson for the First Amendment, said that with the deal, “everyone wins.”
Both sides will benefit from the deal. When Garbus said, “The money goes to Dominion,” Fox stopped getting any money.
Smartmatic, a business that makes voting machines, has also sued Fox for libel. In February 2021, Smartmatic sued Fox News for theft.