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Dominion Voting Systems is scheduled to depose
Fox Corp.
Chairman
Rupert Murdoch
on Thursday ahead of an expected April trial over allegations that Fox News amplified false claims that the voting-machine company manipulated the 2020 presidential election results against Donald Trump.
Dominion, which sued Fox News for defamation in March 2021 and is seeking $1.6 billion in damages, is continuing to gather evidence through the discovery process and is scheduled to depose Mr. Murdoch over two days.
Mr. Murdoch is the latest in a series of top officials from the network to be called in by Dominion attorneys for sworn testimony. Others who have appeared include on-air Fox commentators
Sean Hannity,
Tucker Carlson
and Jeanine Pirro. Top executives were also called in, including Fox News Chief Executive
Suzanne Scott
and parent Fox Corp. Chief Executive
Lachlan Murdoch.
Fox Corp. and Wall Street Journal parent
share common ownership. The litigation—and the potential liability it carries—comes amid efforts by Rupert Murdoch, the executive chairman of News Corp, to reunite Fox and News Corp into a single company.
Dominion and Fox have been jockeying for months over what evidence will be presented at a trial that is scheduled to begin April 17 in a Delaware state court. The two sides this week also filed competing legal motions—under seal for now— that ask the presiding judge to rule in their favor ahead of a trial.
The case, which raises questions about press freedom and the spread of disinformation, is one of the highest-profile media-law battles in years. Defamation claims are famously difficult to win. Under longstanding Supreme Court precedent, public figures must prove by clear and convincing evidence that a news organization acted with actual malice, by either knowingly publishing a false statement or showing a reckless disregard for the truth.
Dominion says its case meets that bar.
“From the highest levels down, Fox knowingly spread lies about Dominion, causing enormous and irreparable damage,” Dominion spokeswoman Claire Bischoff said in a statement. “Instead of acting responsibly and showing remorse, Fox instead has doubled down by publicly stating that they are proud of their Dominion-related coverage.”
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The lawsuit cites a series of allegedly false segments about the voting-machine company that appeared on Fox News and its sister channel Fox Business. Dominion argues the networks’ hosts and guests took a small flame of fringe and false claims about election fraud “and turned it into a forest fire.”
After its Fox News suit, Dominion filed a separate complaint against Fox Corp. The two cases have since been consolidated.
Fox News Media said in a statement, “We are confident we will prevail as freedom of the press is foundational to our democracy and must be protected, in addition to the damages claims being outrageous, unsupported and not rooted in sound financial analysis, serving as nothing more than a flagrant attempt to deter our journalists from doing their jobs.”
In court papers, Fox News said there is no evidence that Dominion suffered the kind of financial harm it is claiming.
Fox News is facing a separate defamation lawsuit in New York filed by voting machine company Smartmatic, which makes similar claims and remains pending. The company is seeking $2.7 billion in damages. Fox has denied the allegations in that case.
Write to Erin Mulvaney at erin.mulvaney@wsj.com
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Appeared in the January 20, 2023, print edition as ‘Dominion to Depose Murdoch In Fox News Defamation Case.’
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