Fox News has settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems, agreeing to pay $787.5m – about half of the $1.6bn initially sought by Dominion. The settlement came just before the trial, sparing Fox executives from having to testify. Dominion claimed that the network spread false claims that the vote had been rigged against Donald Trump, causing harm to the company’s reputation. In the settlement, Fox acknowledged the court’s rulings that certain claims about Dominion were false. Dominion’s CEO said the deal included Fox admitting to telling lies and causing enormous damage to the company.
The lawsuit alleged that Fox had sullied the electronic voting company’s reputation by airing falsehoods about the 2020 vote being stolen from former President Trump. Legal findings released ahead of the trial suggested that some Fox executives and journalists had privately dismissed conspiracy claims that the election was stolen, but still aired them. Despite the payout, some legal experts believe the settlement was a positive outcome for Fox.
Fox still faces a second defamation lawsuit from another election technology firm, Smartmatic, which is seeking $2.7bn. Dominion still has litigation pending against two conservative news networks, OAN and Newsmax, and has sued Trump allies Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and Mike Lindell.
