Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox News for defamation

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The company claimed the network “recklessly ignored the truth” and participated in a disinformation campaign against it because “the lies were good for Fox’s business.”

In the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election, then-President Donald Trump falsely claimed the election was rigged against him. His allies promoted bizarre conspiracy theories about Dominion to back up Trump’s false claims.

“Fox took a little flame” of misinformation and “turned it into a forest fire,” Dominion said in his lawsuit.

Truth matters. Lies have consequences, ”the Dominion lawsuit added. “Fox sold a false electoral fraud story to serve its own commercial ends, with Dominion seriously injured in the process. If this case doesn’t reach the level of defamation by a broadcaster, then nothing will.”

Dominion said that as a result of Fox’s “orchestrated smear campaign” it had suffered “immense and irreparable economic damage” and that its employees had been victims of death threats.

A Fox spokesperson said the network was “proud” of its coverage of the 2020 election, describing it as “in the highest tradition of American journalism.” The spokesperson added that Fox “will vigorously defend this unfounded lawsuit in court.”

Dominion is the second election technology company to file a lawsuit against Fox. Smartmatic sued Fox in February for $ 2.7 billion, making similar allegations against the network. In addition to the network, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and individual Fox hosts were mentioned in that series. Fox called the lawsuit “worthless,” promised to “defend himself vigorously” in court, and filed a motion to dismiss the charges.
Government officials and independent experts have repeatedly said after the November election that there is no evidence of widespread fraud. Nevertheless, Fox’s top shows repeatedly suggested that Trump’s claims were worthwhile.

In his lawsuit, Dominion specifically named hosts Maria Bartiromo, Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro, three of whom were named as suspects in Smartmatic’s lawsuit. Fox is the sole defendant in this case.

Fox eventually aired an unusual point-by-point fact-checking last year, debunking some of the wild election fraud claims on the network. That package aired after Smartmatic sent Fox a legal threat.

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