Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch faces $1.6bln lawsuit over voting machines

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
2 Dec 2022 21:58

The lawsuit was originally filed in June 2021 and initially targeted Fox News, but in June a judge ruled that the suit could be expanded to include Fox Corp.

Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch

Lachlan Murdoch, the son of the media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the CEO of Fox Corp., the parent company of Fox News and the Fox broadcast network, is scheduled to appear for a deposition on Monday in a $1.6bn lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems over claims that the voting machines and equipment the company made rigged the 2020 elections.

The lawsuit was originally filed in June 2021 and initially targeted Fox News. But in June, a judge ruled that the suit could be expanded to include Fox Corp.

According to the suit, Dominion claims that Fox News “sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process."

Fox Corp had tried to avert the suit, but a Delaware judge ruled that the company which had provided machines to 28 states showed adequate evidence to proceed with the suit.

At the time, Dominion was also suing OAN and Newsmax for the same reasons.

"These allegations support a reasonable inference that Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch either knew Dominion had not manipulated the election or at least recklessly disregarded the truth when they allegedly caused Fox News to propagate its claims about Dominion," Judge Eric Davis said.

Earlier this year, Dominion lawyers deposed some of Fox News’ biggest on-air personalities, which include Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Jeanine Pirro.

In August, The Washington Post said it obtained evidence from Fox employees that "provided ‘evidence that Fox knew the lies it was broadcasting about Dominion were false’."

Fox News issued a statement shortly after, stating, "We are confident we will prevail as freedom of the press is foundational to our democracy and must be protected, in addition to the damages claims being outrageous, unsupported and not rooted in sound financial analysis."