OUTFOXED: Dominion wants to hear from all of Fox and friends — under oath!
In a court filing Monday, Dominion Voting Systems requested that Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Bret Baier, Laura Ingraham, Mario Bartiromo, as well as former executive Bill Sammon and editor Chris Stirewalt all take the witness stand.
They’re also asking a judge to force CEO Rupert Murdoch to testify.
Carlson is “just asking questions” when he promotes conspiracy theories and bigoted rhetoric on his Fox opinion show, but what will he have to say when he’s on the stand, under oath, and forced to answer questions, instead?
We will soon find out.
Dominion, which has sued multiple conservative networks as well as individuals who have perpetuated lies or unproven claims about their product, connected to Donald Trump’s false claim that he won the 2020 election but had his win “stolen” by any of various means.
Some of his allies have claimed that Trump received more votes, but that machines were programmed or hacked to change his votes to Joe Biden — a claim they entirely fail to back with any evidence, but recklessly promote nonetheless.
Fox has hit a snag in its fight against the lawsuit, as one producer, Abby Grossberg, has come forward to say that the network’s legal team coached her to give misleading testimony, protecting male hosts and producers while setting up two women at the network (herself and Bartiromo) to take the fall.
In the wake of Grossberg’s new lawsuits and her amendment to her prior testimony, Dominion is making this new request.
From CNN:
“Lawyers for Fox News urged Davis to reject these requests, arguing that it would put an “undue burden” on the Murdochs, and that they don’t have much pertinent information to testify about anyway….The Murdochs, top Fox News executives and many of its TV hosts have already sat for lengthy depositions– which revealed most of them didn’t believe the election-rigging claims that were being peddled on-air.”
A majority of lawsuits end up being settled out of court, and another right-wing network, Newsmax, actually settled one lawsuit with a Dominion employee almost two years ago, according to Deadline, issuing an apology and a statement addressing prior claims.
The Fox News case, however, could be more likely to actually make it to trial, according to analysts.
There’s no sign at this point that either side is willing to consider a settlement before the trial begins on April 17, Forbes reported earlier this month.
