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Trump says Fox News should stand by his election lies to weaken Dominion lawsuit

Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems are set to go to trial this week

Ariana Baio
Monday 17 April 2023 15:31 BST
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Recording captures Giuliani admitting he doesn’t know about Dominion voting machines

Donald Trump suggested Fox News should stand by his election fraud lies to weaken Dominion Voting System’s arguments as the two gear up to go to trial.

The former president took to Truth Social in the early hours of Monday and posted in all caps, “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 added, “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.”

Mr Trump has long held unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election, believing without any evidence whatsoever that he is the rightful winner.

Much of Mr Trump’s false claims were directed at electronic voting systems manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems.

He re-tweeted baseless articles from pro-Trump organisations and spread conspiracy theories about Dominion’s intentions in the election.

Some of those claims were repeated on Fox News.

Dominion Voting Systems is now suing Fox News for defamation, seeking $1.6bn in damages. Dominion alleges Fox News knew the claims were untrue but aired them, uncritically, anyway.

Over the last few months, court filings from the suit revealed that several Fox News producers, executives, and broadcasters privately questioned the claims and expressed concern about airing them.

Fox News claims the conversations were, “cherry-picked quotes without context”.

In the years following Mr Trump’s 2020 election fraud allegations, local, state, and federal officials have disputed Mr Trump’s claims, and multiple investigations found no evidence of mass voter fraud.

Judge Eric Davis, the judge overseeing the defamation case, green-lighted the case going to trial citing that the evidence demonstrated it is “CRYSTAL clear that none of the Statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true,”

Yet, per Mr Trump’s Truth Social post, the former president is still asserting there is evidence that suggests widespread voter fraud and Fox News admitting that would help their case against Dominion Voting Systems.

As of now, Dominion and Fox News are still set to go to trial this week.

The trial was supposed to start on Monday but was delayed for an unknown reason. Multiple reports theorised that Fox News is looking to settle the case, though this is unconfirmed.

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