Fox News Defamation Trial Starts Monday, Jury Seated

Opening statements are due on Monday in Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News over the network's airing of false claims that the company's machines were used to rig the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Reuters reports Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis, presiding over the case in Wilmington, conducted jury selection on Thursday behind closed doors. The trial is one of the most closely watched U.S. defamation cases in years, involving a leading cable news outlet with numerous conservative commentators.

Rupert Murdoch

Davis said he has "more than enough jurors" but will make his final selections on Monday before opening statements. The court will not be in session on Friday.

Dominion sued Fox Corp and Fox News in 2021, accusing them of ruining its reputation by broadcasting false claims by Republican former President Donald Trump and his lawyers that the Denver-based company's voting machines were used to rig the outcome of the election against him and in favor of Democrat Joe Biden.

The trial is considered a test of whether Fox's coverage crossed the line between ethical journalism and the pursuit of ratings, as Dominion alleges and Fox denies. Fox had argued that coverage of the vote-rigging claims was inherently newsworthy and protected by the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment guarantee of press freedom. Davis rejected that argument.

The primary question for jurors will be whether Fox knowingly spread false information or recklessly disregarded the truth, the standard of "actual malice" Dominion must show to prevail in a defamation case.