- The US television broadcaster Fox News and the voting machine manufacturer Dominion have reached an out-of-court settlement in the legal dispute over allegations of defamation relating to unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
- Fox News will pay Dominion $787.5 million in damages, Dominion attorney Justin Nelson said after Tuesday’s settlement.
According to reports from journalists in the courtroom, the agreement was preceded by negotiations between the lawyers of both sides. “We acknowledge the court decisions that found certain claims about Dominion to be false,” admitted Fox Corp, the news channel’s parent company.
Originally asked for 1.6 billion
Dominion filed a lawsuit in 2021, originally seeking around $1.6 billion in damages. The company accused Fox of knowingly spreading the false claim that its voting machines falsified the results of the 2020 presidential election. According to the voting machine manufacturer, Fox was only concerned with the ratings.
The station’s management, citing freedom of the press, insisted it had legitimately reproduced the accounts of then-US President Donald Trump and his lawyers as news. Dominion, on the other hand, wanted to prove that Fox News intentionally broadcast fake news.
The lawsuit isn’t the only lawsuit Fox is facing in connection with the US election. A second dial-up technology maker, Smartmatic, is suing a New York state court for $2.7 billion. The Reuters news agency also reported that Fox shareholders have requested internal documents from the group. This could be the prelude to another lawsuit.