If Dominion prevails in its massive defamation suit against Fox News, a big challenge for the voting tech company will be to demonstrate that it deserves more than $1 billion in damages.
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What to know about the $1.6 billion lawsuit Fox News faces
Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox News over 2020 election lies. Here's why the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit — which goes to trial starting April 17 — could be monumental.
What's in Dominion's lawsuit?
This is what Dominion's $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News is all about.
A civil war within Fox News
Fox stars and journalists turned on each other after the 2020 election, clashing over whether to tell viewers the truth.
After Fox News projected Joe Biden would beat Donald Trump in the key state of Arizona, network stars turned on their own journalists, documents made public in a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit show.
Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric M. Davis has appointed an outside attorney to investigate whether Fox News attorneys withheld key evidence in weeks leading up to defamation trial.
A judge said Fox lawyers previously "represented to him more than once" that Murdoch was not an officer for the cable network. Such information "could have" led him to make different rulings, he said.
The blockbuster $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit is set to go to trial in mid-April in a Delaware court.
The judge in a $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox seemed doubtful of the network's argument that Murdoch should not travel to testify. The newly engaged chairman plans to travel widely with his bride.
Delaware Judge Eric M. Davis, known for his poker face, is overseeing both Dominion Voting Systems' lawsuit against Fox News and a similar case against the conservative TV network Newsmax.
The bigger implications
If Fox News loses its defamation case, here's what that might mean for other media organizations
Could Fox News lose a $1.6 billion lawsuit? Outside media lawyers say the network is in real legal jeopardy if the case goes to trial next month. Fox argues a loss would hurt other news outlets too.
Abby Grossberg, a producer for Tucker Carlson and Maria Bartiromo, alleges Fox News attorneys coerced her to lie under oath in a defamation case against the network. Fox fired her on Friday.
The network says it had to seek a restraining order against producer Abby Grossberg after she threatened to reveal what it calls "privileged information" in a case brought by Dominion Voting Systems.
Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch says the brand is strong. Fox News faces a blockbuster defamation lawsuit over its repeated broadcasting of baseless election-fraud claims in 2020.
Bret Baier's loneliness
Fox News anchor Bret Baier repeatedly pushed to debunk voting fraud lies after the 2020 election. Fox executives ignored him.
Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier repeatedly proposed an hour-long special to debunk voting fraud myths after the 2020 elections. Network executives never gave him an answer.
Under oath in a $1.6 billion defamation case, Murdoch says he wishes Fox News had been "stronger in denouncing" false claims of election fraud. Fox says the lawsuit threatens journalists' free speech.
A woman who put forth election-fraud claims that even she described as "pretty wackadoodle" was a source for baseless claims aired by Fox News in 2020. The network is now being sued for defamation.
After the 2020 election, Fox News repeatedly aired claims of election fraud even though its stars and executives said, behind the scenes, those claims were "ludicrous," "bs" and "nonsense."
Knowingly endorsing lies
In private, Fox News executives denounced its journalists for noting election fraud claims were baseless.
Fox News stars, including Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, privately derided then-President Donald Trump's assertion he'd been cheated of victory in 2020, even as the network amplified such claims.
"I did not believe it for one second," Hannity said under oath about former President Trump's false claims that Dominion Voting Systems cheated him of votes in 2020. Dominion is suing Fox News.
Rupert Murdoch will be deposed on Monday in a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, which also alleges that Fox News destroyed messages from star Sean Hannity and others.
