A $1.6 billion defamation suit brought by a voting machine company against Fox News last year regarding claims by the network of widespread voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election is moving forward after a Delaware judge said the network’s parent company, Fox Corp., could be included in the suit, just days before Fox hired a veteran trial lawyer to take over the case.

Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox News in March 2021, claiming the network defamed it in reports that the technology company was behind alleged and unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud during the election, in which President Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump. Dominion has also filed similar lawsuits against two other networks — OAN and Newsmax — while another voter tech company, SmartMatic, sued Fox in February 2021 for defamation around its election coverage. that suit also appears to be still pending. 

In a ruling in Delaware Superior Court on June 21, judge Eric Davis said Dominion “adequately pleaded” that Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch and chairman Rupert Murdoch played “a central and public role in the management and oversight of Fox News” and could be included in the suit. 

“Limiting the ability of the press to report freely on the American election process stands in stark contrast to the liberties on which this nation was founded and we are confident we will prevail in this case as the First Amendment is the foundation of our democracy and freedom of the press must be protected,” Fox News Media said in a statement on the Delaware Court ruling.

Shortly after that ruling, on June 30, Fox hired Dan Webb, executive chairman of Chicago-based law firm Winston & Strawn and a seasoned trial lawyer, to head up the case, which some news outlets took as an indication that Fox plans to go to trial. Fox has denied that Webb’s hiring had anything to do with the earlier ruling. 

In a statement, Fox News Media said Webb’s appointment adds depth to its legal team “ensuring the protection of the First Amendment and the fundamental right to a free press remain intact.” 

According to the Los Angeles Times, which first reported on his hiring, Webb is a seasoned trial lawyer and has taken on several high-profile cases over the years. Most recently, he was special prosecutor for Cook County, Illinois in its case against former Empire actor Jussie Smollett, who was convicted of hiring two men to stage a hate crime against him in 2019. Webb also has tried several First Amendment cases, which the paper said would jibe with Fox’s anticipated defense strategy in the case. Citing sources familiar with the network, the Times said Fox plans to argue that its reporting on claims of voter fraud by Trump and other pundits is protected speech. 

Dominion has claimed that despite evidence to the contrary, Fox News continued to push the voter fraud narrative in an effort to boost ratings. Throughout election day, Trump and his allies continuously criticized Fox for reporting that Trump’s lead in certain states was slipping. But the last straw apparently came after the channel called the key state of Arizona for Biden prior to midnight, infuriating Trump and his team. Although the prediction was correct, Trump and his followers continued on a path alleging the election was tainted by widespread voter fraud.

According to the suit, Fox began connecting Dominion to voter fraud claims on November 8, and “in the weeks and months that followed, Fox News made Dominion the focus of the conversation.” 

Although Fox News journalists had reported that there was no evidence of fraud that could sway the election, Dominion has claimed that several network program hosts helped perpetuate claims the election was stolen by allowing Trump allies to continue to push that theory and promote claims that Dominion played a role in rigging results on air. Subsequently, the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency failed to find any evidence that voting systems used in the 2020 election were tampered with.  

The tech company alleges that in order to boost ratings, Fox News and its executives provided a platform for guests that its hosts knew would make false statements, agreed with those statements on air, and published those statements as facts. 

“Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch allegedly made a ‘business calculation’ to spread former President Trump’s narrative through Fox News even though they did not personally believe it,“ Dominion claimed in the suit. “Thus, Fox Corporation’s employees and officers allegedly had ‘direct responsibility’ for airing the statements about Dominion.” ▪️

According to a new Pew survey, 58% of Republicans polled said the President's allegations of voter fraud, which he has been making at rallies, in tweets, TV interviews and press conferences, have gotten "too little attention" in post-election press coverage, while another 22% said that they have gotten about the right amount.

That is according to a just-released Pew Research Center American News Pathways Project survey of 12,648 U.S. adults conducted Nov. 18-29.

Also read: Survey Majority Sees Bias in News Outlet Election Coverage

And while 63% of Democrats said those allegations, which social media have generally been flagging as disputed or misleading, have gotten too much attention, more than a third said the level of attention has been about right, with 8% saying there has been too little attention.

Republicans who get their election news from Fox News and/or talk radio were more likely than Republicans with a wider news diet to say Trump's "post-election messaging" (i.e. the election was a fraud and he actually won) has been right and that such messaging deserves more media attention.

Also Read: Survey Majority Says Big Tech Censors Political Speech

Democrats were far more likely to say news outlets they "turn to most" did a good job of explaining the vote counting process compared to only 16% of Republicans who said that about the news sources they turned to.

When asked about all sources, the difference was even greater, with two thirds of Democrats (69%) saying the news media provided "largely accurate" coverage of the post-election landscape, while only 18% of Republicans said so.

As to the impact of social media coverage and moderation of election messages, 62% of Republicans said those decisions had "a major impact" on the election, while only 37% of Democrats said so.

As to whether that was a force for good or not, 78% of Republicans said they disapproved of the decisions by social media sites--Twitter and Facebook among them--to flag election news, while the same 78% of Democrats approved.

The margin of error for poll is plus/minus 1.5 percentage points.

President-elect Donald Trump took aim at CNN late Monday (Nov. 28) and early Tuesday (Nov. 29) in a string of tweets claiming the news outlet was in the tank for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

"@CNN is so embarrassed by their total (100%) support of Hillary Clinton, and yet her loss in a landslide, that they don't know what to do," Trump said Monday night via a tweet, his preferred form of commentary.

He followed Tuesday morning with "I thought that @CNN would get better after they failed so badly in their support of Hillary Clinton however, since election, they are worse!"

Trump's comments followed CNN reports disputing his claims that millions of illegal votes had been cast in the election. The cable news network had reported that his fraud claims were not only unsubstantiated but simply untrue and posited that Trump may have gotten the "millions" figure from conspiracy theorists.

Facing various recount efforts in swing states, led by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and subsequently supported by the Clinton camp, Trump had tweeted: "Serious voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California - so why isn't the media reporting on this? Serious bias - big problem!"

Candidate Trump had been a long and strong critic of journalists, insulting them and accusing major media outlets of being part of a conspiracy to defeat him. President-elect Trump has also continued his media attacks, last week saying in response to reports on his administration's potential conflicts of interest: "Prior to the election it was well known that I have interests in properties all over the world. Only the crooked media makes this a big deal!

The voter fraud story, which has been reported by other media outlets including The Washington Post, has ramped up Trump's attacks. CNN has also launched a new ongoing segment focused on those potential conflicts of interest.

A CNN spokesperson had no comment on Trump's latest criticisms.