Dominion demands Fox News anchors testify in court

Dominion Voting Systems is seeking leading Fox News anchors to testify before a jury trial due to begin next month.

List of living Dominion witnesses Fox CorpRight-wing broadcasters include Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Maria Bartiromo and Janine Pirro, as well as former anchor Lou Dobbs and Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, according to court documents.

Dominion pointed to 20 broadcasts in which they believed Fox News and Fox Business hosts repeated false claims of election fraud and consistently met guests who repeated those claims. Documents, including text messages and emails, show that Fox broadcasters were skeptical of allegations of electoral fraud that were made live.

Dominion filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp. and her right-wing networks, alleging that her hosts made false claims that her voting machines were rigged in the 2020 election, which Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden. Trump, who is running for president in 2024, has repeatedly said that the election was stolen from him. On January 6, 2021, hundreds of his supporters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to prevent Congress from confirming Biden’s victory.

Dominion and Fox argued during Tuesday’s hearing about which witnesses could be in April’s trial and how that would work.

Dominion is also asking for court testimony from Fox Corp. executives, including Chairman Rupert Murdoch and CEO Lachlan Murdoch, among others.

“The Dominion’s overly extensive list of living witnesses is yet another attempt to create headlines and divert attention from the many shortcomings of their case. Ultimately, this case is about the First Amendment’s protection of the media’s absolute right to cover the news,” Fox said. announcement on Tuesday.

Although Murdoch Sr. is not called in person, Fox spoke out against the possibility of him traveling to Delaware in April, as he previously testified for seven hours.

Judge Eric Davis said on Tuesday that if Murdoch had been on the witness list, Fox would not have been able to argue about difficultiesgiven that he was recently engaged and was discussing travel plans.

While both Dominion and Fox last week urged Davis to rule without a trial next month, the case should be handled as if there had been a trial. Davis indicated that he would make a decision before the scheduled April 17 trial date. If the trial takes place, it is expected to last several weeks.

Dominion claims its business has suffered in the months since the election when the announcements were made on the Fox networks.

Fox denied the allegations and claimed he was protected by the First Amendment.

The lawsuit has been heating up lately as a plethora of evidence has been released from both sides, consisting of pages of full excerpts from testimony, text messages and emails.

Also last week, a former Fox producer who worked on The Bartiromo and Carlson Show said she was forced to give misleading testimony as part of a lawsuit against Dominion.

Abby Grossberg, who filed lawsuits against Fox in New York and Delaware, also blamed the network discrimination. After her lawsuits were made public last week, Grossberg’s lawyers said in court documents that Fox fired her in retaliation.

In court documents filed on Monday, Grossberg said that while she cannot be forced to testify at trial, she will only testify voluntarily on behalf of the Dominion.

On Tuesday, Grossberg was placed on the Dominion witness list.

A spokesman for Fox explained the decision to fire Grossberg: “As with most organizations, Fox News Media attorneys engage in privileged communications with our employees when necessary to provide legal advice. Last week, our lawyers informed Ms. Grossberg that while she could file whatever legal claims she wanted, she was in possession of our confidential information and was not entitled to disclose it publicly. We were clear that if she violated our instructions, Fox would take appropriate action, including termination. Ms. Grossberg ignored these messages and decided to file her complaint without taking any steps to protect those parts that contain Fox confidential information. We will continue to vigorously defend Fox against Ms. Grossberg’s undeserved legal action, which is riddled with false allegations against Fox and our employees.”