Dominion’s $1.6bn defamation case against Fox News WILL go to jury trial

Dominion’s $1.6billion defamation case against Fox News will now proceed to trial by jury after a judge refused to make a summary ruling in favor of either side.

The voting machine company is suing the network over claims Fox defamed it by repeatedly airing false claims about the 2020 presidential election.

Fox has said it was simply covering very newsworthy allegations. 

Dominion claims that Fox aired false allegations by then-President Donald Trump in the weeks after the election claiming the company’s machines and software had switched votes to Joe Biden. The court proceedings have shown that many of its executives and hosts aired the claims despite not believing them to be true.

A voting machine company’s defamation case against Fox News over its airing of false allegations about the 2020 presidential election will go to trial

Fox said it was simply covering very newsworthy allegations. The coverage fed an ecosystem of misinformation surrounding Trump’s 2020 loss that has persisted ever since

Superior Court Judge Eric Davis ruled Friday that neither Fox nor Dominion had presented a convincing argument to prevail on whether the network acted with malice, the standard for libel, without the case going to a jury. 

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But he also ruled that the statements Dominion had challenged constitute defamation ‘per se’ under New York law.

That means Dominion did not have to prove damages to establish liability by Fox.

‘The evidence developed in this civil proceeding demonstrates that (it) is CRYSTAL clear that none of the statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true,’ Davis wrote in his summary judgment ruling.

Davis added that Fox could not escape potential liability by claiming privileges for neutral reporting or opinion. 

‘(Fox’s) failure to reveal extensive contradicting evidence from the public sphere and Dominion itself indicates that its reporting was not disinterested.’ the judge wrote. 

A Dominion spokesman said: ‘We are gratified by the Court’s thorough ruling soundly rejecting all of Fox’s arguments and defenses, and finding as a matter of law that their statements about Dominion are false. We look forward to going to trial.’

Fox emphasized that the case is about the media’s First Amendment protections in covering the news.

‘Fox will continue to fiercely advocate for the rights of free speech and a free press as we move into the next phase of these proceedings,’ the network said in a statement.

The decision paves the way for a trial start April 13.