The false claims by Fox News and Trump allies have had an impact, but perhaps not what they intended. Dominion Voting Systems filed a $1.6 billion defamation suit against the Fox News organization on Friday afternoon, claiming defamation of Dominion from their news coverage of the 2020 election, which made false voter fraud claims.
Dominion Voting Systems is a voting technology company that provided some, but by no means all, of the high-tech voting systems the states use for their elections. It became one of the more prominent named targets of these baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, including that the voting equipment was rigged to change votes away from President Trump and toward then-presidential candidate Joe Biden.
“Fox sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process,” according to the lawsuit filed March 26 in Delaware. “If this case does not rise to the level of defamation by a broadcaster, then nothing does.”
The suit goes on to say that “Fox endorsed, repeated, and broadcast a series of verifiably false, yet devastating lies about Dominion,” the complaint says, including claims that the company’s software manipulated the results of the 2020 vote.”
Fox News, for its part, issued a statement Friday morning stating that it “is proud of our 2020 election coverage, which stands in the highest tradition of American journalism, and will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit in court.”
Many Dominion employees including Dr. Eric Coomer, who AVV covered in an earlier stories, have faced harassment, threats of physical violence and death threats over the claims pushed by Fox News. Several of them had to go into hiding, while Trump surrogates continued to spew false accusations of their involvement in voter fraud.
Dominion is seeking at least $1.6 billion in lost profits and enterprise value from Fox News, plus more than $1 million in security expenses and expenses combatting disinformation. The company’s lawsuit asks for a jury trial.
Dominion has also filed defamation lawsuits against three others actively and aggressively involved in false claims of voter fraud directed against Dominion. They include Trump ally and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, presidential lawyer and mouthpiece Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, lawyers who worked with Trump on his post-election flurry of legal actions. The company is seeking $1.3 billion in damages from each of them.
It has yet to be determined if Dominion is a safe and secure system to use as a voting tool. Our country believes in due process., which means the court of public opinion is an Opinion. The wording in this piece is an opinion. My opinion is to wait for a verdict before passing judgment.
Bonnie, that Fox News and Trump supporters have made false claims about the results of the 2020 election is NOT an opinion. More than 60 U.S. courts have weighed in regarding the 2020 election and no evidence of voter fraud has been found. What other verdict is there that you are looking for?
I don’t know what the court of public opinion is to which you refer, but to continue to support the “Big Lie” is to come down on the side against democracy. The people spoke. They elected Joe Biden by millions of more votes than Trump got, and an overwhelming result of the Electoral College. There was no voter fraud. There is — now — with comments such as yours, a concerted effort to discredit that results, to silence the millions of voters who voted in a result you don’t like. There is democracy, and there is what you are suggesting should happen, which isn’t democracy. A court will decide if the lies spread by Fox News and others amount to libel and slander against Dominion. AVV suggests you get over it.
Fox News has already been to court to defend their right to lie, and also claimed that “no reasonable person” would take seriously a squeaky-voiced clown like Tucker Carlson, much the same claim that Sidney Powell is now making in order to defend herself against lawsuits over the same idiotic and false claims that she spread far and wide.
If Fox News is so worried about maintaining their right to lie that they would go to court over it, and if “no reasonable person” could ever take seriously the claims of people like Tucker Carlson and Sidney Powell, as they claim in court, what does that say about the people who did eagerly swallow all of the bs spread by Fox News, Tucker Carlson, and Sidney Powell!? I guess the nicest thing you could say about them is that they’re not serious people.
All my love to Mike Lindell, tho. It’s always fun seeing a crazed maniac on tv.
If these are the people you admire, I’d hope that you take the time for some reflection on your choices in life, but I know that is too much to hope for at this point, when so many of you are so far gone around the bend.