It’s not only the House Jan. 6 select committee that is revealing new details about Donald Trump’s plot to undermine our democracy to remain in power. A Delaware state judge on Tuesday denied Fox Corp.’s motion to dismiss the defamation lawsuit filed against the company by Dominion Voting Systems. The judge mentioned that Dominion in its suit had cited a report that Rupert Murdoch had told Trump in early November that he had lost the election.
The judge’s decision was first reported by Bloomberg News, which is behind a paywall. Raw Story published a report that included quotes from the Bloomberg story. Here is a link to the 25-page ruling. In his ruling rejecting Fox News’ motion, the presiding judge made clear that Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan may have been in on knowingly spreading the false attacks against Dominion.
Bloomberg reported:
"Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric M. Davis on Tuesday denied Fox Corp.'s motion to dismiss the suit, saying Dominion Voting Systems had shown that the Murdochs may have been on notice that the conspiracy theory that rigged voting machines tilted the vote was false but let Fox News broadcast it anyway," reported Erik Larson and Mike Leonard. "Dominion cited in its suit a report that Rupert Murdoch spoke with Trump a few days after the election 'and informed him that he had lost,' the judge noted." […]
"Davis noted in his ruling that, according to Dominion's suit, various news outlets reported that Rupert Murdoch spoke with Trump and other senior Republicans shortly after the election and urged them to drop their election-fraud narrative and concede defeat. The voting-technology firm was also able to point to a claim that Murdoch urged a Republican leader to ask other politicians in the party not to endorse Trump's false theory about Dominion, the judge said," Bloomberg reported. "The ruling is the latest by a judge allowing defamation suits to proceed against conservative news outlets and Trump allies who allegedly repeated the false theory extensively on-air — a theory that ultimately helped trigger the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot."
In December, Judge Davis dismissed another such motion to have the Dominion lawsuit dismissed. Dominion’s lawsuit, filed in March 2021, seeks at least $1.6 billion in damages from Fox News.
There is a rather high bar for proving a defamation case against a media outlet. Dominion must establish not only that the claims against them were false and harmful to their reputation, but that Fox knew the information was false or else acted with a reckless disregard for what they knew or didn’t know to be true.
Dominion issued a statement that read: "We are pleased to see this process moving forward to hold Fox accountable."
The judge’s decision allows the discovery phase of the lawsuit to continue under which Dominion’s lawyers can have access to internal Fox communications in search of evidence. The New York Times noted:
Dominion had argued that Fox Corporation should also be part of the litigation because its two most senior executives, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, played “a direct role in participating in, approving and controlling” statements that fed false perceptions of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
In a decision, Judge Eric M. Davis of Delaware Superior Court said Dominion had “adequately pleaded” facts supporting its claim that Fox Corporation was “directly liable” for what Fox News put on the air. He reasoned that the Murdochs were widely known to have a hand in shaping Fox News coverage. Judge Davis also said it was reasonable to infer that Fox Corporation had “participated in the creation and publication of Fox News’s defamatory statements.”
Judge Davis did deny a claim from Dominion to extend its lawsuit to Fox Broadcasting, the television and entertainment division of the Fox brand, The New York Times reported.
Fox News also faces a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic, another electronic voting machine company.
Dominion’s website has a page devoted to all the defamation lawsuits it has filed related to ”the lies and misinformation” that “have severely damaged our company and diminished the credibility of U.S. elections, subjecting hardworking public officials and Dominion employees to harassment and death threats.”
Among those also being sued for defamation are Newsmax and One America News Network, My Pillow’s Mike Lindell and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, and ex-Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.