WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — A voting machine company’s defamation case against foxnews for broadcasting false allegations about the 2020 presidential election will go on trial after a Delaware judge on Friday allowed a jury to decide whether the conservative network broadcast the claims with actual malice, the standard for proving defamation.
Superior Court Judge Eric Davis ruled that neither Fox nor Dominion Voting Systems had made a convincing argument to prevail over whether Fox acted with malice without the case going to a jury. But he also ruled that the statements Dominion had challenged constituted defamation “per se” under New York law. That means Dominion did not have to prove damages to establish Fox’s liability.
“The evidence developed in this civil proceeding demonstrates that (it is) CLEARLY clear that none of the Dominion-related statements about the 2020 election are true,” Davis wrote in his summary judgment.
The decision clears the way for the trial to begin in mid-April.
Dominion is suing the network for $1.6 billion, alleging that Fox defamed it by repeatedly broadcasting false claims about the company’s machines and accompanying software. Court records and testimony revealed that many Fox hosts and executives did not believe the claims, but continued to broadcast them.
Fox has said it was merely covering newsworthy allegations. The coverage fed an ecosystem of disinformation around the former president donald trumpThe 2020 loss that has persisted ever since.
