Fox News Settles A Lou Dobbs Defamation Lawsuit

A settlement has been reached in a Venezuelan businessman’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News and host Lou Dobbs over statements accusing him of helping tilt the 2020 presidential election according to The Hill.

In a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Louis Lee Stanton filed in the Southern District of New York over the weekend, lawyers for the two parties wrote they had reached an agreement to resolve the matter. Financial terms of the agreement were not specified.

Majed Khalil filed his lawsuit in 2021, alleging statements made on Dobbs’s social media and by pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell on Dobbs’s Fox Business show defamed him by accusing the businessman of executing an “electoral 9/11” and helping change ballot counts in voting machines.

“The 2020 Election is a cyber Pearl Harbor: The leftwing establishment have aligned their forces to overthrow the United States government,” Dobbs wrote in a Twitter post that remains online.

According to Khalil’s complaint, as Powell was appearing on one of his shows, the host asked, “You say these four individuals led the effort to rig this election. How did they do it?”

Dobbs and Fox’s attorney had moved to have the case dismissed on First Amendment grounds, a motion the judge denied last fall.

“This matter has been resolved amicably by both sides,” a Fox News spokesperson said when contacted Sunday by The Hill. “We have no further comment.”

Fox canceled Dobbs’ show in February of 2021.