Posts tagged with "Dominion Voting Systems"

Above, Ruppert Murdoch, chairman of Fox News and Fox Corp. (Photo source: Lionel Bonaventure/Agence-France Presse)

In deposition, Rupert Murdoch says Fox News hosts endorsed false 2020 election claims

March 1, 2023

Rupert Murdoch has admitted that some Fox News hosts and commentators endorsed the false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen, according to testimony in an ongoing defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The Denver-based voting-machine company is suing Fox News and Fox Corp. for defamation, over false on-air claims that its technology enabled widespread fraud in the election. The new details emerged in briefs in which the companies laid out evidence they plan to present to a Delaware state court.

Murdoch, who is the chair of both Fox News and its parent, Fox Corp., said Fox News and Fox Business commentators—including on-air hosts Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, and Sean Hannity—endorsed the idea of a stolen election to varying degrees, according to a deposition cited in Dominion’s brief, which was unsealed on Monday, February 27.

The media baron said Fox News itself didn’t endorse that narrative. “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it, in hindsight,” Murdoch said, according to the filing. Asked if he could have stopped the hosts from highlighting allegations on air, Murdoch responded, “I could have. But I didn’t.”

In full disclosure, Murdoch is also executive chairman of News Corp, parent of The Wall Street Journal. He and his family are large shareholders in Fox Corp. and News Corp.

Dominion is suing for what it alleges were defamatory on-air comments about its products after former President Donald Trump lost the election to President Joe Biden. The voting-machine company is seeking $1.6 billion in damages.

Fox News Media has said that it simply reported newsworthy allegations, and the lawsuit would be an attack on press freedom under the First Amendment. Fox also has argued the damages claim from Dominion vastly overstates the value of the company, and that the voting company can’t tie any losses directly to the network’s coverage.

Fox News Media said in a statement Monday that Dominion’s lawsuit “has always been more about what will generate headlines than what can withstand legal and factual scrutiny.”

The trial is slated to begin April 17 in Delaware state court.

Research contact: @WSJ

Photo source:@royalanimals/#foxnews/Instagram

Dominion Voting wins key decision in lawsuit against Fox News

December 20, 2021

A judge in Delaware has found that Fox News‘ coverage of election fraud after the 2020 election may have been inaccurate—and is allowing a major defamation case against the right-wing TV network to move forward, reports CNN.

Judge Eric Davis of the Delaware Superior Court declined to dismiss Dominion Voting Systems‘ lawsuit against Fox News in a significant ruling on Thursday, December 16.

The ruling will now allow Dominion to attempt to unearth extensive communications within Fox News as they gather evidence for the case, and the company may be able to interview the network’s top names under oath.

At this stage, CNN notes, the court must assume Dominion’s claims about Fox News are true. Still, Davis called out in the 52-page opinion that Fox News may have slanted its coverage to push election fraud, knowing the accusations were wrong.

Dominion alerted the network’s anchors and executives to information that disproved accusations of widespread vote-switching following Donald Trump’s re-election loss, the judge noted.

“Nevertheless, Fox and its news personnel continued to report Dominion purported connection to the election fraud claims without also reporting on Dominion’s emails … Given that Fox apparently refused to report contrary evidence, including evidence from the Department of Justice, the Complaint’s allegations support the reasonable inference that Fox intended to keep Dominion’s side of the story out of the narrative,” the judge wrote.

The court rejected Fox News’ claims that it was able to discuss Trump advisers’ election fraud conspiracies under principles of news reporting.

Fox News reacted to the ruling saying in a statement, “As we have maintained, FOX News, along with every single news organization across the country, vigorously covered the breaking news surrounding the unprecedented 2020 election, providing full context of every story with in-depth reporting and clear-cut analysis. We remain committed to defending against this baseless lawsuit and its all-out assault on the First Amendment.”

The lawsuit alleges Fox News personalities including Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Pirro, Sean Hannity and their on-air guests Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Mike Lindell spread lies about fraud in the 2020 election that hurt Dominion’s business. It is one of several lawsuits Dominion has brought related to right-wing claims after the election, and is a major win for the company.

The case will continue to move forward toward a final judgment, as both sides gather evidence. The judge still is considering whether Dominion can be considered a well-known entity, which could give Fox News some protection under the law.

Research contact: @CNN

Photo source: George Washington University Law School

Dominion sues pro-Trump news outlets OAN and Newsmax over election conspiracy theories

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August 11, 2021

On Tuesday, August 10, Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems— which provided 28 states with Dominion voting machines to tabulate their votes during the 2020 U.S. presidential election—filed defamation suits against One America News Network; Herring Networks’ Newsmax Media; and Patrick M. Byrne, the founder and former CEO of Overstock.com over claims by the defendants that the company rigged the 2020 U.S. election for President Joe Biden.

According to a report by CNBC, also named in the complaint are OAN personalities Chanel Rion and Christina Bobb, and Herring Networks owners Robert Herring and Charles Herring.

OAN didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Former President Donald Trump refused to accept the 2020 presidential election results and instead backed dozens of failed lawsuits and continued to spread baseless claims of voter fraud. OAN and Newsmax are pro-Trump news organizations.

The trio of complaints details that OAN, Newsmax and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne “knowingly and continuously sold the false story of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election, with Dominion cast as the villain,” CNBC reports.

“Newsmax and OAN both endorsed, repeated, broadcast, and amplified a series of verifiably false lies about Dominion to serve their own commercial purposes,” wrote Dominion lawyer Stephen Shackelford, a partner at Susman Godfrey LLP.

“Patrick Byrne is responsible for bankrolling and promoting a viral disinformation campaign about Dominion that reached millions of people worldwide. We are suing to set the record straight, to vindicate Dominion’s rights, to hold the defendants accountable, and to recover damages for the devastating economic harm done to Dominion’s business,” Shackelford added.

According to the complaint, OAN and Newsmax repeated outlandish and far-fetched fictions to include:

  • Dominion committed election fraud by rigging the 2020 Presidential Election
  • Dominion’s software and algorithms manipulated vote counts in the 2020 Presidential Election
  • Dominion is owned by or owns a company founded in Venezuela to rig elections for the late dictator Hugo Chávez
  • Dominion was involved with alleged voting irregularities in Philadelphia and Dallas — cities where its voting system is not even used.
  • Dominion paid kickbacks to government officials who used its machines in swing states during the 2020 Presidential Election

“The defendants in today’s filings recklessly disregarded the truth when they spread lies in November and continue to do so today,” Dominion CEO John Poulos wrote in a statement Tuesday, referring to the false claims of a fraudulent election.

“This barrage of lies by the defendants and others have caused — and continue to cause — severe damage to our company, customers, and employees. We have no choice but to seek to hold those responsible to account,” Poulos added.

Newsmax condemned the suit in a statement: “While Newsmax has not reviewed the Dominion filing, in its coverage of the 2020 Presidential elections, Newsmax simply reported on allegations made by well-known public figures, including the President, his advisors and members of Congress — Dominion’s action today is a clear attempt to squelch such reporting and undermine a free press,” the company said.

Dominion was already suing Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Fox News and other pro-Trump figures over election conspiracy claims. Fox has sought to have the suit dismissed.

Research contact: @CNBC

Above, Sidney Powell. (Photo source: Yahoo News)

Dominion brings $1.3 billion defamation suit against ex-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell

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January 11, 2021

Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems—which serves 28 U.S. states nationwide—has brought a $1.3 billion defamation suit against the conservative lawyer Sidney Powel, alleging that her false and outlandish claims about fraud in the 2020 election “caused unprecedented harm,” CNBC reports.

The suit is the first in an expected flurry of high-priced litigation against prominent conspiracy theorists and right-wing media organizations that have spread baseless falsehoods about President Donald Trump’s defeat in last November’s election.

It comes as the nation continues to reckon with the aftermath of Wednesday’s deadly insurrection by a mob of Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol.

The supplier of voting machines brought the suit in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The company warned last month that it would bring defamation suits against those trumpeting conspiracy theories about its voting machines, including Fox News and major media personalities.

Powell did not immediately respond to a request for comment  from CNBC. The attorney, a former member of Trump’s legal team, has falsely claimed among other things that Dominion was somehow created by the deceased Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez to rig the 2020 contest. Chavez died in 2013.

“As a result of the defamatory falsehoods peddled by Powell—in concert with likeminded allies and media outlets who were determined to promote a false preconceived narrative—Dominion’s founder, Dominion’s employees, Georgia’s governor, and Georgia’s secretary of state have been harassed and have received death threats, and Dominion has suffered enormous harm,” Dominion attorney Thomas Clare said in the 124-page lawsuit.

The suit says the company issued Powell a letter formally warning her to stop lying about the company, and cited a tweet that she posted shortly afterward refusing to do so.

“Powell doubled down, tweeting to her 1.2 million Twitter followers that she heard that ‘#Dominion’ had written to her and that, although she had not even seen Dominion’s letter yet, she was ‘retracting nothing’ because ‘[w]e have #evidence’ and ‘They are #fraud masters!’,” the company said.

Dominion asked the court to award it at least $651,735,000 in compensatory damages and the same amount in punitive damages, in addition to paying for the expenses it incurred filing the litigation. The suit lists Defending the Republic, a company Powell has used for fundraising purposes, as a defendant alongside Powell.

Powell, L. Lin Wood and Brannon Castleberry are the directors of Defending the Republic.

Powell and Wood, another conspiracy theorist lawyer, held a joint “Stop the Steal” rally in Georgia in December in which they spread conspiracy theories about the election. Wood frequently tweeted conspiracy theories about Chief Justice John Roberts and the election until he was banned from the platform this week.

Powell, a former federal prosecutor, and Wood, had filed lawsuits in district courts in Georgia and Michigan seeking to overturn the results of the presidential election. All of the lawsuits have been dismissed.

“Powell and Wood filed their election lawsuits—which never had a chance of reversing the results of the election—with the obvious and cynical purpose of creating court documents they could post on their fundraising websites and tout as ‘evidence’ during their media campaign,” the Dominion lawsuit says.

It also accuses the attorneys of seeking “to raise funds and their public profiles, and to ingratiate themselves to Donald Trump for additional benefits and opportunities that they expected to receive as a result of their association with him.”

Wood did not immediately return a request for comment from CNBC.

Other lawsuits are expected shortly.

Research contact: @CNBC