Dominion Voting Systems has filed a $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News, claiming the cable news network defamed it when it reported that the tech company was behind alleged and unsubstantiated voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Earlier, the Ontario, Canada-based Dominion filed suits against former president Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, as well as another Trump-allied attorney, Sidney Powell, and Trump supporter and MyPillow entrepreneur Mike Lindell, all for tying Dominion’s name to bogus allegations of election fraud on Fox News air time.
Another voting tech company, SmartMatic, filed suit against Fox News, as well as some of its current and former on-air performers, in early February. At the time, Fox stepped away from one of its highest rated on-air personalities, and one of the biggest perpetrators of the election fraud myth, Lou Dobbs, although it didn’t tie Dobbs’ departure to any of the legal action.
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“The truth matters. Lies have consequences,” the Dominion lawsuit said. “Fox sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process. If this case does not rise to the level of defamation by a broadcaster, then nothing does.”
Before Dominion filed its lawsuit Friday, Fox News had already filed four motions to dismiss other legal actions against its coverage.
“Fox News Media is proud of our 2020 election coverage, which stands in the highest tradition of American journalism, and we will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit in court,” the company said in a statement provided to Associated Press.
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Former Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee, investigated the former president’s claims of rampant fraud in the November 2020 election and found no evidence to support them. Likewise, Republican state officials for disputed key battleground states, Arizona and Georgia, found no evidence suggesting the election was rigged. And myriad legal challenges to the election filed by the Trump Administration and its allies were tossed — the U.S Supreme Court notably dismissed two of them.
Still, a number of Fox News personalities continued to report the false claim of rampant voter fraud as fact, making false accusations about Dominion in the process. Dominion said in its suit that it tried on numerous occasions to dispute the claims but was rebuffed by Fox News.
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Dominion said its principals and employees were threatened and harassed by Trump supporters.
According to the Associated Press, one employee, Eric Coomer, said he had to go into hiding over death threats tied to the false claims. Coomer has filed his own lawsuits against the Trump campaign, as well as conservative media outlets Newsmax and One America News Network.
