Fox News Dominion case: Rupert Murdoch son drops lawsuit against news site as Smartmatic eyes trial

Rupert Murdoch, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and other big names have all avoided being called to testify over 2020 election lies

'Lies have consequences': Dominion announces settlement with Fox

Rupert Murdoch's son has suddenly dropped his lawsuit against Australian news site Crikey days after Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems a landmark settlement.

Lachlan Murdoch sued Crikey for defamation last August over a column titled: “Trump is a confirmed unhinged traitor. And Murdoch is his unindicted co-conspirator.”

The suit was dropped on Friday, citing Fox News $787m settlement with Dominion over lies about the 2020 presidential election.

“Crikey has tried to introduce thousands of pages of documents from a defamation case in another jurisdiction, which has now settled,” the statement from Lachlan Murdoch’s legal team said.

“Mr Murdoch remains confident that the court would ultimately find in his favor, however he does not wish to further enable Crikey’s use of the court to litigate a case from another jurisdiction that has already been settled and facilitate a marketing campaign designed to attract subscribers and boost their profits.”

Media pundits are now speculating over the possible fallout from the defamation settlement, with Puck founder Dylan Byers sparking a Twitter frenzy with a column suggesting that Rupert Murdoch could even axe some of his hosts in response to the case.

The Independent has requested comment from Fox News addressing the speculation but there was no immediate change in the network’s programming schedule as of Thursday.

On Tuesday, Fox News reached a settlement with Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation lawsuit moments before opening arguments were about to get under way at trial.

Dominion sued Fox News for defamation, alleging that the network gave a platform to and failed to challenge conspiracy theorists that suggested Dominion was engaged in voter fraud during the 2020 election.

Those conspiracies reportedly damaged Dominion’s business and resulted in employees receiving threats from angry Fox News viewers.

In a last-minute deal, Fox News agreed to pay Dominion $787.5m to put the issue to bed.

Fox News has other legal troubles brewing with Smartmatic revealing what it will take for it to also settle its case against the network.

The voting technology company’s lawyer said on Thursday it won’t accept any settlement smaller than the same $787m payout and will demand a “full retraction” and “apology” from the network.

Key points

• Fox News finally covers the Dominion trial
• Fox News and Dominion settle defamation case
• Dominion CEO: An ‘historic settlement'
• ‘We’re not done yet’
• Fox News $787m payment in Dominion case is largest media settlement in US history

[19 April 2023 10:30 · Rachel Sharp]

Who else is Fox News being sued by?

The lawsuit between Dominion Voting Systems and Fox News is far from the network’s only legal problems.

These are the other people and companies suing Rupert Murdoch’s empire over the 2020 election lies:

- Smartmatic

- Abby Grossberg

- Fox investors

- Crikey

[19 April 2023 11:00 · Bevan Hurley]

Fox-Dominion $787m settlement is second largest in US history

The $787.5m settlement in the Fox News defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Machines is the second largest award in US history.

Last year, a Connecticut jury ordered Alex Jones to pay $965m to the parents of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting for spreading bogus claims that they were crisis actors.

[19 April 2023 11:30 · Rachel Sharp]

Trump silent on Fox News Dominion settlement

Donald Trump has remained silent on the settlement reached between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems.

The former president is yet to comment on the news – despite the lawsuit being directly related to his election lies.

On Monday, Mr Trump had suggested Fox News should stand by his election fraud lies to weaken Dominion Voting System’s arguments in the case.

“If Fox would finally admit that there was large scale cheating & irregularities in the 2020 presidential election, which would be a good thing for them, & for America, the case against them, which should not have existed at all, would be greatly weakened,” he had claimed.

“Back up those patriots at Fox instead of throwing them under the bus - & they are right! There is sooo much proof, like mass ballot stuffing caught on government cameras, FBI colluding with Twitter & Facebook, state legislatures not used, etc.”

[19 April 2023 12:00 · Bevan Hurley]

Fox News said it was ‘pleased’ with the $787.5m settlement

In a statement, Fox News said: “We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems.”

“We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.”

With the settlement, Fox News has admitted to knowingly spreading false claims about the voting machine company in the afermath of the 2020 presidential election.

However, the hosts responsible for making the claims appear unlikely to have to do so on-air.

CNN’s Oliver Darcy said that the terms of the $787.5m settlement did not include any requirement for Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity to address the 2020 election lies they helped to spread.

[19 April 2023 12:30 · Rachel Sharp]

Who else is Dominion suing over election lies?

The lawsuit between Dominion Voting Systems and Fox News is far from the only one being pursued by the voting systems company over the 2020 election lies.

These are the other people and companies still being sued by Dominion:

- Sidney Powell

- Rudy Giuliani

- Mike Lindell

- OAN

- Newsmax

- Patrick Byrne

[19 April 2023 13:00 · Bevan Hurley]

Fox News and Dominion reach shock settlement in blockbuster defamation lawsuit moments before trial

Moments before opening arguments in one of the biggest defamation trials in US history were set to begin, Fox News agreed to settle a lawsuit from a voting machine company that accused the network of spreading false statements about its business in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.

Alex Woodward has the full story.

[19 April 2023 13:30 · Rachel Sharp]

WATCH: CNN anchor laughs as he reports on $787.5m Fox News and Dominion settlement

[19 April 2023 14:00 · Josh Marcus]

Former Fox News producer slams network’s ‘abhorrent culture of lawlessness’ after settlement

Fox News may have avoided a bruising defamation trial with its recently announced settlement of the Dominion lawsuit, but the knives are still out for the conservative network.

Following the announcement, attorneys for Abby Grossberg, a former Fox News producer involved in the case, said the settlement was indicative of a larger culture of “lawlessness” at the network. “While we congratulate Dominion on a truly precedent setting settlement, we cannot help but be reminded of how Fox News’s penchant for paying out notoriously large settlements to resolve lawsuits exposing its unlawful conduct – whether it’s troubling allegations of workplace discrimination and sexual harassment and misconduct, to accusations of spreading malicious lies – have unfortunately, to date, failed to bring about actual meaningful changes to the network’s abhorrent culture of lawlessness,” the lawyers told The Independent in a statement.

“Fortunately, our client, Abby Grossberg, remains committed as ever to obtaining vindication of Fox News’s violations of not just her rights but the rights of others whose voices have been silenced or who fear retribution for exposing the truth, through her two lawsuits against Fox,” the statement added.

Ms Grossberg was fired from the network in March, after claiming Fox coerced her into giving misleading testimony in the defamation action. (Fox News claims she was let go for divulging privileged information.)

[19 April 2023 14:30 · Josh Marcus]

Fox-Dominion $787m settlement is second largest in US history

The $787.5m settlement in the Fox News defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Machines is the second largest award in US history.

Last year, a Connecticut jury ordered Alex Jones to pay $965m to the parents of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting for spreading bogus claims that they were crisis actors.

[19 April 2023 15:00 · Bevan Hurley]

Dominion CEO breaks silence on $787.5m settlement with Fox News

Dominion Voting Systems CEO John Poulos highlighted the importance of truth when speaking about the $787.5m defamation settlement with Fox News.

Mr Poulos spoke with Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday, just one day after Fox News and Dominion settled the months-long battle about false statements the media organisation aired regarding election fraud in 2020.

“We weren’t ready to settle until all of the facts that we had discovered had come to light in the public, that was something that we had committed to from the beginning,” Mr Poulos said about the settlement.

Adriana Baio has the story.