The case of the century for media defamation has been settled before the opening arguments.
Fox Corp. has settled the high-profile defamation lawsuit brought against Dominion Voting Systems, effectively ending the lawsuit.
Judge Eric Davis announced the resolution in court on Tuesday, after the start of the trial was delayed by two hours.
“The parties have resolved their case,” Davis said.
Terms of the settlement were not immediately disclosed, although Dominion had sought $1.6 billion from Fox in its lawsuit.
Dominion’s lawsuit made international headlines as text messages from Fox News hosts like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity and emails and statements from the likes of Rupert Murdoch gave the public a glimpse into the typically arcane inner workings of arguably the most powerful media outlet. in America.
Dominion is a voting equipment manufacturer, and after President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, it was the subject of numerous conspiracy theories, some pushed by Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. Powell and Giuliani made a number of appearances on Fox News in the weeks following the election, and some Fox hosts (most notably Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo) appeared sympathetic to the plots.
Dominion sued Fox Corp. on in March 2021.
Fox News argued that it was just news, and since President Trump and his lawyers made the claims about Dominion and the election, they were inherently newsworthy. Dominion argued that Fox executives were shocked that competitors like Newsmax were having any success siphoning off Fox’s audience, and would do anything to keep their viewers happy, even if it meant parroting a conspiracy the employees knew they were committing. were not true.
Earlier in April, Fox settled another libel suit related to the aftermath of the 2020 election, one brought by a Venezuelan businessman named Majed Khalil, who was the subject of a Dobbs segment portraying him as part of a conspiracy to steal the election for Joe. to pray.
