Hosts at Fox News had serious concerns about allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election being made by guests who were allies of former President Donald Trump, according to court filings in a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network.
“Sidney Powell is lying,” about having evidence for election fraud, Tucker Carlson told a producer about the attorney on Nov. 16, 2020, according to an excerpt from an exhibit that remains under seal.
The internal communication was included in a redacted summary judgment brief filed Thursday by attorneys for Dominion Voting Systems.
Carlson also referred to Powell in a text as an “unguided missile,” and “dangerous as hell.” Fellow host Laura Ingraham, meanwhile, told Carlson that Powell is “a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy,” referring to former New York mayor and Trump supporter Rudy Giuliani.
Sean Hannity, meanwhile, said in a deposition “that whole narrative that Sidney was pushing, I did not believe it for one second,” according to Dominion’s filing.
Denver-based Dominion, which sells electronic voting hardware and software, is suing both Fox News and parent company Fox Corporation. Dominion said some Fox News employees deliberately amplified false claims that Dominion had changed votes in the 2020 election, and that Fox provided a platform for guests to make false and defamatory statements.
Attorneys for the cable news giant argued in a counterclaim unsealed Thursday that the lawsuit is an assault on the First Amendment. They said Dominion has advanced “novel defamation theories” and is seeking a “staggering” damage figure aimed at generating headlines, chilling protected speech and enriching Dominion’s private equity owner, Staple Street Capital Partners.
“Dominion brought this lawsuit to punish FNN for reporting on one of the biggest stories of the day— allegations by the sitting President of the United States and his surrogates that the 2020 election was affected by fraud,” the counterclaim states. “The very fact of those allegations was newsworthy.”
Fox attorneys also said in their own summary judgment brief that Carlson repeatedly questioned Powell’s claims in his broadcasts. “When we kept pressing, she got angry and told us to stop contacting her,” Carlson told viewers on Nov. 19, 2020.
Fox attorneys say Dominion’s own public relations firm expressed skepticism in December 2020 as to whether the network’s coverage was defamatory. They also point to an email from Oct. 30, 2020, just days before the election, in which Dominion’s director of product strategy and security complained that the company’s products were “just riddled with bugs.”
In their counterclaim, Fox attorneys wrote that when voting-technology companies denied the allegations being made by Trump and his surrogates, Fox News aired those denials, while some Fox News hosts offered protected opinion commentary about Trump’s allegations.
Fox’s counterclaim is based on New York’s “anti-SLAAP” law. Such laws are aimed at protecting people trying to exercise their First Amendment rights from being intimidated by “strategic lawsuits against public participation,” or SLAPPs.
“According to Dominion, FNN had a duty not to truthfully report the President’s allegations but to suppress them or denounce them as false,” Fox attorneys wrote. “Dominion is fundamentally mistaken. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press would be illusory if the prevailing side in a public controversy could sue the press for giving a forum to the losing side.”
Fox attorneys warn that threatening the company with a $1.6 billion judgment will cause other media outlets to think twice about what they report. They also say documents produced in the lawsuit show that Dominion has not suffered any economic harm and do not indicate that it lost any customers as the result of Fox’s election coverage.
Superior Court Judge Eric Davis is scheduled to preside over a trial beginning in mid-April, but granting summary judgment to either side would obviate the need for a jury trial that could stretch over five weeks.
In its 192-page brief, Dominion said the judge should rule in its favor because “no reasonable juror could find in Fox’s favor on each element of Dominion’s defamation claim.” Dominion attorneys also assert that no reasonable juror could find in favor of Fox’s “neutral reportage” and “fair report” defenses.
“Recounts and audits conducted by election officials across the U.S. repeatedly confirmed the election’s outcome, including specifically that Dominion’s machines accurately counted votes,” Dominion’s filing states. “That evidence alone more than suffices for summary judgment on the falsity of the claims that Dominion rigged the election and its software manipulated vote counts.”
Fox News attorneys argue the network’s coverage and commentary are not defamatory.
“Even assuming, for the sake of argument, that Dominion could point to any statement that could be actionable defamation, this court should grant Fox News’ summary judgment motion for the independent reason that Dominion lacks clear and convincing evidence that the relevant individuals at Fox News made or published any statement with actual malice,” the attorneys wrote.
Davis ruled last month that, for the purposes of the defamation claims, he will consider Dominion to be a public figure. That means Dominion must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the Fox defendants acted with actual malice or reckless disregard for the truth.
Attorneys for Fox Corp. joined in the brief filed by Fox News, while also asserting that the parent company is independently entitled to summary judgment because Dominion has not produced any evidence needed to hold it liable.
(AP)
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The filing also alleges that Powell told Fox employees and host Maria Bartiromo that she relied on sources that made her unreliable. The suit states that before Powell’s Nov. 8, 2020 appearance on Bartiromo’s Sunday Morning Futures show, the “evidence” Powell provided to back her false accusations that Dominion manipulated the election was from an individual who described herself as “internally decapitated” and capable of “time travel in a semi-conscious state.”
makes them vile and filthy people
These revelations just confirm the fact that Fox News personalities are entertainers.
This is another manipulative AP headline and story. If you read carefully it’s not about the general 2020 fraud claims, it’s about the Dominion machines, and the skepticism was about being able to winningly prove it to the rock-headed judiciary out there…
Anyone with a half of an independent brain knows Trump’s claims were right.
https://rumble.com/vdp7df-share-unmasked-have-we-uncovered-the-truth-about-the-2020-election.html
Does this report change the minds of any of you nudniks who have thought that (i) Trump won the 2020 election, or (ii) Fox News is a reliable, accurate source of truthful news?
To me the whole law suit seems frivolous and without merit.
Defamation lawsuits can only be made against an individual – a public corporation is not protected as are private sector individuals.
@Yaapchik you may want to go back to law school.
The article suggests Trump genuinely believed the election was stolen, and was acting in good faith (ask what actions would be appropriate if an election was stolen, as had happen several times in the country’s history). This shows a lack of criminal intent. Being in error is not a crime. It may a good reason not to support him for reelection, but isn’t grounds for impeachment (note that he was acquitted twice), or criminal prosecution.
Best Quote from the Fox/Dominion Litigation Coverage:
“Tucker Carlson’s motivation in remaking himself from a respected and skilled features writer into a white-nationalist demagogue has long been the subject of curiosity. Unlike many of his colleagues, who are widely seen as legitimate morons, Carlson has (or at least had) enough intelligence to see through the rank propaganda he peddles every night. The Dominion internal communications go a long way toward putting the mystery to rest…”
AP = Always Propaganda
The entire world now knows that President Trump was prevented from being given a second term.
Anyone who has even the simplest mind, would realize that there is no way Biden got 81 million votes. That, besides the cheating evidence that has been revealed over and over only to be ignored. More votes than people in many states. After a Trump win at midnight , ballot counting stopped in the and a phony pipe burst with boxes of mail in Biden ballots incessantly appearing & a Trump win turned to a Biden win. Even in 2022, Arizona is crystal clear proof of Democrat cheating. The Republican tampering with machines deliberately sent voters seeking other areas to vote and the votes dumped into boxes. Doesn’t say much for Hannity or Tucker if they truly believe Biden won. So far, the Dems are liars & cheaters across the board and all the supposed conspiracy theories are validated as true. Hannity & Tucker definitely know the truth about the election steal? but it would cost them their jobs at FOX which is run by anti Trumper Paul Ryan. Let’s not forget how FOX called Arizona for Biden in ridiculously early stages in 2020. The Rhinos, Fox and Soros are the Establishment and they’re hijacking DeSantis to stop Trump now. Let’s stop being fools. Trump with all his faults is the only one truly for the people and no one else will stop the destruction of America through the efforts of them evil NWO. Wake up and see the truth about the vaccines , daily events of warehouses, trains and farms being destroyed in order to diminish America, the flooding of open borders to end American sovereignty so Soros, Gates &Strauss can end American power & bring the world to its knees toward their Fascist rule. Jews need to wake up and know that the NWO means no religion allowed. It becomes Communism across the world without a Constitution or freedoms ofvthr Bull of Rights.
To those of you still insisting that Trump won the election – please crawl back into your Mommy’s basement and leave the internet to the adults. Thank you.
To Yaakov doh: These revelations also confirm that Fox “news” top 3 anchors are lying liars.
To yaapchik: where did you go to law school? Or, did you ever drive past a law school? Parking in a law school parking lot doesn’t count.
That they didn’t believe the claims against Dominion is not surprising, because the evidence offered to support those claims never made any sense. That does not mean the election wasn’t stolen; it just means Dominion was not the tool used for stealing them.
That much was obvious as soon as Georgia did a hand count, and it matched the machine count. This proved beyond doubt that the Dominion machines in GA had accurately counted the votes. If Georgia was stolen (and the evidence is strong that it was), it was stolen by fraudulent votes, not by fraudulent counting.
The only question in the lawsuit is, did FOX ever make any claims against Dominion. If it did, it is liable and should have settled a long time ago. But if it merely reported on other people’s claims then it is not liable and should fight this to the end.
Ditto for these personalities. If they personally ever went on the air and said Dominion had rigged the count, then they should have to pay everything they have. But I don’t think they ever did that. They simply reported that Powell, Lindell, et al were making these claims. That was legitimate news, and the first amendment protects their right to report it, with or without comment. They had no obligation to publicly say what they thought of these claims.
Gloriakatz, I could not read your wall of text. Have you ever heard of paragraphs? But one sentence caught my eye: “More votes than people in many states.” That is just an outright lie. There is no state, no district, no precinct, that recorded more votes than it had registered voters*, let alone than it had people. (* Except of course in those states where no registration is required, so the number of registered voters is zero and the number of votes is always higher than that!)
Yaapchik, what you wrote makes no sense.
Corporations are people, and can both sue and be sued for defamation. And there’s no question that Powell and her friends did defame Dominion. It is a public figure, so it has to prove that they deliberately defamed it, which they may well do. But it’s suing FOX, and to do that it must show when FOX endorsed these claims. I have never seen evidence that it ever did so. But if it did, then it’s liable.
The fact that Trump failed to prove anything is not proof there wasn’t anything. For anyone rigging elections, the best defence is offense. The numbers still do not add up, and their refusal to answer basic questions makes one wonder…