justice
Fox News and Dominion settle defamation lawsuit
This courtroom sketch shows Justin Nelson (2nd from left), attorney for Dominion Voting Systems, and Daniel Webb (r), attorney for Fox News, speaking to Judge Eric Davis in the Delaware Superior Court. Photo
© Elizabeth Williams/AP/dpa
It was about defamation through unsubstantiated allegations of electoral fraud. The voting machine manufacturer Dominion demanded a lot of money from the TV station Fox News. Now there is an agreement.
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 will pay Dominion $787.5 million in damages, Dominion attorney Justin Nelson said. According to reports from journalists in the courtroom, the agreement was preceded by negotiations between the lawyers of both sides.
Dominion had originally demanded around 1.6 billion US dollars (around 1.5 billion euros) in damages in the lawsuit because Fox News had distributed reports of alleged manipulation of the voting machines. 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.