On Tuesday, Fox News hurriedly agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems — one of the largest ever settlements in a defamation case — just hours after the jury selected for the process. In addition to the huge financial settlement, Fox admitted that “certain claims” it had made about Dominion were false.
By settling with Dominion, the network avoided the potential embarrassment of a lawsuit that could have exposed its inner workings. Rupert Murdoch, the 92-year-old Fox News founder, and Fox host Tucker Carlson were potential witnesses.
Dominion sued the cable news network two years ago after it aired stories falsely claiming that Dominion’s voting machines were susceptible to hacking and flipped votes to Joseph R. Biden Jr. that were released for Donald J. Trump, who was president.
But the Dominion settlement isn’t the only legal action facing some news outlets after making false claims about the 2020 election.
In 2021, right-wing news outlet Newsmax formally apologized for spreading false allegations that a Dominion employee had manipulated voting machines. In a statement on its website, Newsmax said it found “no evidence” that the Dominion associate, Eric Coomer, manipulated voting machines in an attempt to sabotage Trump’s re-election bid.
“On behalf of Newsmax, we would like to apologize for any harm our reporting of the allegations against Dr. Coomer may have caused to Dr. Coomer and his family,” the statement said.
Dominion also sued Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow and an outspoken supporter of the former president, and two of Mr. Trump’s attorneys, Sidney Powell and Rudy W. Giuliani, for their baseless allegations of election fraud. In 2021, a federal judge refused to dismiss the lawsuits against them. And in October, the Supreme Court declined to consider Mr Lindell’s bid to dismiss his lawsuit. This month he told The New York Times, “I will never back down, never, never, never.” The lawsuits are ongoing.
Smartmatic v Fox News
In 2021, Fox News was also sued by Smartmatic, which provided voting technology in Los Angeles County for the 2020 election. In its complaint, Smartmatic wrote, “Fox joined the conspiracy to discredit Smartmatic and its election technology and software and discredit,” adding, “The story led a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol.” The lawsuit, filed in the New York State Supreme Court, is seeking damages of at least $2.7 billion.
In February, a New York appeals court denied Fox’s request to dismiss the case, and a New York judge last month said the case could proceed. A trial date has not been set.
“We will be ready to defend this case around extremely newsworthy events when it goes to trial, likely in 2025,” Fox News said in a statement Wednesday.
Smartmatic v. Newsmax
Smartmatic also filed a libel suit against Newsmax, accusing it of spreading untruths about the company. Judge Eric M. Davis, who was also assigned to the Fox-Dominion trial, will preside. In February, Newsmax lost his bid to end the trial and Judge Davis allowed the case to proceed.
Smartmatic v One America News
In 2021, Smartmatic also sued One America News Network, accusing the news organization of broadcasting disinformation about the 2020 election, even after the company warned it to stop. In June, a judge rejected a request to dismiss the lawsuit.
Lou Dobbs
This month — days before jury selection began for the Dominion case — Fox News and Lou Dobbs, a former Fox Business host and loyal Trump supporter, settled a libel suit with Majed Khalil, a Venezuelan businessman. Mr. Dobbs and Ms. Powell, a regular on Fox News, falsely claimed on-air and in related Twitter posts that Mr. Khalil was part of a conspiracy to flip votes. One of the tweets said he was “the effective ‘COO’ of the election project.” Fox canceled Mr. Dobbs’ show in February 2021.
