During the effort to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election, several Donald Trump surrogates spread baseless allegations on right-wing media about Dominion Voting Systems, Inc, a Denver company that helps administer elections.
Dominion sued a number of those surrogates and media organizations for defamation, including Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Mike Lindell, One America News Network, and Fox News.
Dominion is now alleging that Fox News has failed to hand over relevant documents pertaining to the suit filed against them. In a new lawsuit levied against Fox News’ parent company, Fox Corp., Dominion is asking a judge to force the media conglomerate’s chairman, Rupert Murdoch, to share materials related to his editorial control over election night coverage. They also want similar documents from his son, Lachlan.
“Fox News has disclaimed any responsibility for searching or producing the Murdochs’ documents, or working to facilitate any discovery from Fox Corporation at all — despite Fox Corporation’s clear involvement (through Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, and others) in managing Fox News, including through editorial input and control,” Dominion said in court documents.
Bloomberg explains:
The searches are warranted because the Murdochs “exert direct control” over editorial decisions at Fox News, which Dominion accused of pushing the conspiracy theory to avoid losing viewers who supported Trump, according to the complaint, filed Monday. The claims were repeatedly made on-air by Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s main lawyers in the fight to overturn the election results, and former Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell.
“This lawsuit [filed in Delaware] is a continuation of Dominion’s efforts to hold accountable all Fox entities that participated in the harmful defamation campaign against Dominion,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday to Bloomberg.
“The filing today changes nothing of substance in this case,” Fox Corp. said in an emailed statement to the outlet. “Fox is proud of our 2020 election coverage, which stands in the highest tradition of American journalism, and we will continue to vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit in court.”