Eric M.Davis: Last News

Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Lou Dobbs are among the current and former Fox News personalities facing depositions in Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network.

Newsmax has reached a settlement with election systems company Smartmatic, averting a defamation trial that was set to start next week.

Smartmatic will not be able to collect punitive damages in its upcoming defamation trial against Newsmax should a jury rule in its favor, a Delaware judge ruled today.

A Delaware judge said that a jury will have to decide whether Newsmax engaged in actual malice against Smartmatic as the conservative news outlet amplified claims made by allies of Donald Trump that the voting machine company helped rig the 2020 presidential election.

Fox News has settled Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the Rupert Murdoch-owned organization, averting a lengthy, expensive and certain to be embarrassing trial.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox Corporation and Dominion Voting Systems agreed to settle a much-discussed $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit mere hours after a jury had been seated to consider the matter in Delaware’s Superior Court. Attorneys for the two sides had been set to deliver opening statements to the jury. But that activity was delayed Tuesday after Judge Eric M. Davis called for a lunch break. “The parties have resolved their case,” the judge said. The legal case had already generated intense scrutiny, with documents, emails and texts from senior Fox executives and well-known Fox News anchors and hosts all suggesting many people at the company knew they were disseminating conspiracy theories around the 2020 presidential election and Dominion Voting’s role in it.

After a one-day delay and amidst whispers of settlement talks, Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation trial against Fox News is set to begin Tuesday in Wilmington, DE.

The start of the Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation trail against Fox News that was to start Monday has now been delayed until Tuesday.

As Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News heads to a trial next week, the judge in the case placed limits on what attorneys can and cannot bring up before the jury.

Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan Murdoch, Fox Corporation board member Paul Ryan and Fox Corp. executive Viet Dinh can be compelled to testify in Dominion’s upcoming defamation trial against Fox News, a judge said on Wednesday.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Dominion Voting Systems’ whopping $1.6 billion defamation suit against Fox Corporation and Fox News is cleared to go to trial, despite the media company’s efforts. Barring a settlement or other unforeseen circumstances, the voting technology company will get to have its attorneys grill Fox News anchors and Fox Corp. executives, Judge Eric M. Davis of Superior Court in State of Delaware ruled in a filing on Friday. “The Court will allow this civil action to go to trial,” Davis said Friday. At issue in the case are damages Dominion alleges it is owed after Fox News aired false claims about its actions and influence on the 2020 election. It is the second legal proceeding made against Fox News for its coverage of the aftermath of the 2020 race for the White House. Smartmatic, a separate voting technology company, has filed a massive $2.7 billion suit against Fox News. Both suits allege that Fox News falsely claimed the companies had rigged the election, repeated items about the matter and then refused to engage in efforts to set the record straight. The 2020 election was not fixed and its results were certified by multiple legal processes.

 Unless Rupert Murdoch and Fox News settle soon, Dominion Voting Systems will have its day in court in its defamation case against the combative conservative cable newser.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox News is about to have one of its biggest events in years, and everyone from CEO Suzanne Scott to prominent anchors like Tucker Carlson and Maria Bartiromo to primetime chief Meade Cooper is likely to attend some part of it. If Fox’s parent company has its way, however, Rupert Murdoch, the guiding force behind much of Fox Corporation, will not. Starting as soon as April 17, Fox Corp. could square off in the Superior Court of the State of Delaware and face allegations of defamation from Dominion Voting Systems in a whopping $1.6 billion-dollar suit that is sure to generate headlines. Before any of that can start, however, the two sides appear to locked in a battle over whether the Fox Corp. executive chairman, and his son, CEO Lachlan Murdoch, should be present in court to give testimony.

Dominion Voting Systems and Fox offered dueling views of defamation law in their latest filings, as each side seeks a summary judgment ruling that could forestall a planned trial in April.

Dominion Voting Systems scored a legal victory in its efforts to hold Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch’s Fox Corp. liable in its defamation lawsuit, not just Fox News, after the network featured guests and personalities who amplified false election rigging claims.