Wilmington, Delaware
CNN
—
Fox News reached a last-second settlement with the Dominion Voting System on Tuesday as the case raced against opening claims, paying more than $787 million to close a lawsuit. legal battle lasted two years publicly undercut the credibility of the right-wing network.
Fox News’ $787.5 million settlement with the Dominion Voting System is the largest publicly known defamation deal in U.S. history involving a media company.
The agreement was announced hours after the jury was sworn in in Delaware Superior Court. Rumors of the mediation spread in the court when, after the lunch break, the proceedings abruptly stopped for almost three hours without any explanation, while the parties appeared to have reached an agreement. .
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“The parties settled their case,” Judge Eric Davis said, before disbanding the 12-member jury, noting that they had motivated the parties to reach a conciliatory agreement. praised lawyers on both sides and launched the so-called “test of the century” media before it could begin.
Justin Nelson, Dominion’s attorney, said the groundbreaking settlement “represents vindication and accountability.” “For our democracy to last for another 250 years, and hopefully much longer, we must share a commitment to truth… Today represents a resounding endorsement of the cause. real and for democracy.”
The right-wing network said in a statement that it “acknowledges”[s] decisions of the Court concluding certain claims about Dominion to be false,” referring to Davis’ recent ruling that 20 Fox News broadcasts from late 2020 contained blatantly false claims that Dominion rigged the presidential election. But Fox won’t have to admit on air that it has spread lies about Dominion, a Dominion representative told CNN.
The $787.5 million payout is almost half of the $1.6 billion that Dominion originally searchedthough it’s nearly 10 times the company’s valuation from 2018 and about eight times its annual revenue in 2021, according to court filings.
Last minute deal means The case is closely monitored has ended and will not proceed with testing. By settling with Dominion, influential Fox News executives and prominent figures on the air will be exempt from witness about their 2020 election, which was filled with lies about voter fraud.
The witness list including Fox Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch, his CEO’s son Lachlan Murdoch and top Fox hosts Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson. The damning emails, messages, and testimony made public in the case revealed that these and many others at Fox, have specifically said in 2020 that election fraud allegations against Dominion is stupid. But anyway the lies were spread on the air.
Rupert Murdoch thought Election denialism was “really insane,” even as Fox characters sold those same claims to millions of viewers. Carlson said he “crazy” hates Donald Trump, his presidency was a “disaster”. Fox hosts, producers, fact-checkers, and senior executives have specifically said in online statements about a stolen election that a stolen election is “kooky,” “reckless one.” dangerous way” and “mind frenzy”.
These revelations have created month belong to blisters headlines for Fox as the case moves to trial. By settling now, Fox has deprived Dominion of the opportunity to further expose his dishonesty with a weeklong trial.
“This settlement reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards,” Fox said in a statement Tuesday. “We hope that the decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, rather than the rigors of a divisive trial, will allow the country to move forward from these issues.”
Fox News and Fox Corporation – its parent company, which is also the defendant – insist they have never defamed Dominion, and say the case is a futile attack on the First Amendment’s freedom of the press. best.
Speculation about a settlement has peaked in recent days, especially after the court on Sunday declared one day late until the start of the trial, which was originally scheduled to begin on Monday.
The jury selection process ended as planned on Tuesday morning and both sides prepared opening statements. They even briefly stuck with objections to specific slides in their presentation. But when proceedings didn’t resume shortly after lunch, the chances of reaching an agreement seemed to increase by the minute, even though top lawyers on both sides sat in the courtroom, looking at their phones. and wait.
The racially diverse jury of six men and six women has returned to court, ready to take the front row in the historic trial. But Davis, the judge, instead told the panel they helped push for a settlement.
“Your presence here, short of what you might think, and nothing out of the ordinary in a sense, is vitally important,” Davis said. “Without you, the parties will not be able to resolve their situation.”
Many on the Dominion side see the settlement as a victory for democracy and for truth itself.
Dominion CEO John Poulos said Tuesday outside of court: “Fox has admitted to lying about Dominion, which has caused enormous damage to my company, our employees and those of others. customers we serve.
While the Dominion case is now over, Fox News is still facing a Second largest defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic. go to court.
For its part, Dominion is still pending lawsuits against right-wing TV networks Newsmax and OAN, as well as against Trump allies Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Mike Lindell. They all denied wrongdoing.
CNN’s Liam Reilly and Danny Freeman contributed to this story.
