Court Filing: Fox News Knew Vote-Rigging Claims Were B-S

Fox News repeatedly broadcast lies about vote-rigging claims that it knew were “total bs,” Dominion Voting Systems said in a filing made public on Thursday, as part of the election technology company's $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit.

The media giant countered that the suit was an assault on a free press and that Dominion could not prove its claims, reports Reuters.

"From the top down, Fox knew 'the dominion stuff' was 'total bs,'" Dominion wrote, citing a sealed exhibit. “Yet despite knowing the truth - or at minimum, recklessly disregarding that truth - Fox spread and endorsed these 'outlandish voter fraud claims' about Dominion even as it internally recognized the lies as 'crazy,' 'absurd,' and 'shockingly reckless.'"

The filing seeks summary judgment, a court ruling in its favor without the need for a trial.

Dominion sued Fox News Networks in March 2021 in Delaware state court, alleging the cable TV network amplified false claims that Dominion voting machines were used to rig the 2020 U.S. presidential election against Republican Donald Trump and in favor of his Democratic rival Joe Biden, who won the election.

Fox defended its coverage in its own summary judgment motion unsealed on Thursday, arguing it had a right to report on election-fraud allegations made by Trump and his lawyers and saying Dominion's lawsuit would stifle freedom of the press.

Dominion's filing is replete with references to emails and statements in which Fox Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch and other top Fox executives say the claims made about Dominion on-air were false.

“Sidney Powell is lying,” about having evidence for election fraud, Tucker Carlson told a producer about the attorney on Nov. 16, 2020, according to an excerpt from an exhibit that remains under seal.

Carlson also referred to Powell in a text as an “unguided missile,” and “dangerous as hell.” Fellow host Laura Ingraham, meanwhile, told Carlson that Powell is “a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy,” referring to former New York mayor and Trump supporter Rudy Giuliani

Sean Hannity, meanwhile, said in a deposition “that whole narrative that Sidney was pushing, I did not believe it for one second,” according to Dominion’s filing.

A five-week trial is scheduled to begin on April 17.