Fox News and one of its former hosts, Lou Dobbs, have settled a defamation lawsuit with a Venezuelan businessman the network linked to voting system fraud in the 2020 election.
In a letter filed Saturday with a federal judge in the Southern District of New York, the parties say they have reached a confidential settlement, though they are not disclosing terms.
“This matter has been resolved amicably by both parties,” a Fox News spokesperson said in an email. “We have no further comment.”
The settlement comes days before jury selection this week in a high-profile case that Fox News is defending. That case, a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, says that Fox News lied about voter fraud in the 2020 election, and that Fox hosts and guests repeatedly made false claims about Dominion machines and their alleged role in a plot to elect President Donald J. Trump in 2020.
In that trial, which is expected to begin April 17, a jury will consider whether Fox spread false claims about Dominion when it knew the claims were untrue, and determine damages, if any.
“Dominion’s lawsuit is a political crusade in search of a financial windfall,” the Fox spokesperson said.
In the case of Venezuelan businessman, Majed Khalil, Mr. Dobbs and Sidney Powell, a regular on Fox News, said on-air and in related Twitter posts that Dominion used software to flip votes from President Trump to Joseph R. Biden Jr., or to add votes for Mr. Biden.
One of the tweets falsely stated that Mr. Khalil was “the effective ‘COO’ of the election project.” In an earlier complaint, Mr. Khalil that neither Fox News nor Mr. Dobbs had contacted him for comment.
Fox Business canceled Mr. Dobbs’ weekday show in February 2021.
