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The list of Fox News publications and broadcasts that Dominion says are false

Fox settled the $1.6 billion defamation case brought against it by Dominion for spreading election lies despite knowing they were false. Here’s the evidence

DADO RUVICREUTERS

Dominion Voting Systems was one of the central focuses of the baseless 2020 election fraud conspiracy theories that were spread by Fox News and other right-wing media outlets. On Tuesday Fox News settled the $1.6 billion defamation case brought against it by Dominion, agreeing to pay slightly less than half of the amount demanded in damages to the reputation of the comapny that makes voting machines.

In the run-up to the trial, which was due to begin 18 April, Dominion presented a series of briefs laying out the evidence that Fox News executives and its hosts knowingly broadcast false information. In a ruling to allow the case to go to trial, Superior Court Judge Eric Davis, who oversaw the lawsuit, ruled that it was “CRYSTAL clear that none of the statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true,” which were made by Trump allies on Fox in the weeks after the election.

“The statements at issue were dramatically different than the truth,” Davis said.

The news outlet and its parent company were sanctioned by Davis just days before the trial was set to begin for withholding evidence from the plaintiff in the form of recorded conversations taped by an ex-producer, Abby Grossberg, who is also suing Fox.

While the company isn’t required to make any apologies to Dominion nor broadcast retractions as a part of the settlement deal it did release a statement. “We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards,” the company said.

List of Fox News publications and broadcasts that Dominion says are false

In papers filed with the court Dominion argued that “Fox knew the truth. It knew the allegations against Dominion were ‘outlandish’ and ‘crazy’ and ‘ludicrous’ and ‘nuts.’”

“Yet it used the power and influence of its platform to promote that false story. Fox knew better.”

Specifically, Dominion presented internal messages prior to broadcasting the phony conspiracy theories as well as public statements on social media. CNN collected 16 such examples of the baseless election fraud allegations broadcast on-air from prominent pro-Trump election deniers Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Lindell when interviewed by Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson among others at the network. As well as other statements and Twitter posts.

The claims were wide ranging but revolved around the bogus accusations that Dominion was responsible for election fraud through its voting machines which were designed to steal votes. Also that the company had ties to the leaders of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro and the late Hugo Chavez. Additionally, that politicians had financial involvement in the company while others were receiving kickbacks to use the company’s machines.

The audio tapes of conversations furthered Dominion’s claim that Fox News executives and hosts went forward with reporting despite being told that there was no evidence. Grossberg made the recordings as part of her work to help with her job and her lawyer said that they were handed over to Fox’s attorneys but never given to Dominion as part of the discovery process of the lawsuit. Judge Davis admonished the defense lawyers and gave Dominion the option of performing further discovery before the trial would begin.

Two examples presented on MSNBC’s “Alex Wagner Tonight” by Grossberg’s lawyer showed that there was no proof of fraud by Dominion. In one, Giuliani told Bartiromo when asked about evidence on the voting software in November 2020 “that’s a little harder to tell you -- it’s being analyzed right now.” In another, Trump officials in December 2020 were asked about audits of the voting machines to which they respond: “There weren’t any physical issues with the [voting] machines” and that “the audit came in pretty darn close to what the machine count was.”

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