Dominion Voting Systems wants to put Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Bret Baier, and other Fox News executives on the witness stand to testify in its $1.6bn defamation lawsuit against the right-wing network.
The voting machines manufacturer also wants to call Fox News president Jay Wallace, chief executive Suzanne Scott, hosts Laura Ingraham, Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo to testify at trial, it said in a court filing on Monday, according to CNN.
Delaware Superior Court judge Eric Davis is expected to make a summary judgement ruling in favour of either side or to go forward with a trial.
Dominion has accused Fox of airing false allegations that the company was engaged in voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election even though many at the network doubted the claims were true. Fox said it was lawfully reporting on newsworthy developments.
Carlson, Hannity and Baier all worried privately after the election that Fox’s early declaration that Joe Biden had won the key state of Arizona had damaged the network in the eyes of viewers who supported Donald Trump, according to documents.
Fox submitted the names of 35 potential live witnesses to the court this week, while Dominion offered 54 names. Dominion has also reportedly reserved the right to call former House speaker Paul Ryan, who is on the Fox Corp board of directors.
Dominion previously asked judge Davis to force Fox corporation chair Rupert Murdoch and chief executive Lachlan Murdoch to testify at trial.
Fox has suggested testimony that Mr Murdoch, 92, has already given in a deposition would suffice.
“Mr Murdoch has claimed that he’s traveling, and (that it’s) an inconvenience,” the judge said. “But I also have people telling me that he’s hardly infirm and is able to travel around… I think he recently got engaged on St Patrick’s Day… and he said he looks forward to traveling between his various residences in Montana, New York and London.”
“That doesn’t sound like someone who can’t travel from New York to Wilmington,” judge Davis said.
Dominion said it wishes to call to stand Fox News producer Abby Grossberg, who filed lawsuits against the network last week, alleging that its lawyers had coached her to give misleading testimony.
Grossberg, a now-former producer for Fox programmes starring Carlson and Bartiromo, claimed she was unlawfully terminated days after she filed her complaints in New York and in Delaware.
She is also seeking to recant testimony she said network lawyers coerced her into providing. Grossberg said Fox’s lawyers left her feeling she “had to do everything possible to avoid becoming the ‘star witness’ for Dominion or else I would be seriously jeopardizing my career at Fox News”.
Fox in a statement said Dominion’s “needlessly expansive” witness list “is yet another attempt to generate headlines and distract from the many shortcomings of its case”.
“Ultimately, this case is about the First Amendment protections of the media’s absolute right to cover the news.”
Dominion responded saying it believes in the First Amendment but it “does not shield broadcasters that knowingly or recklessly spread lies”.
The judge on Tuesday granted a joint request from both sides to allow each to have six preemptory challenges in selecting jurors, instead of the usual three.
Additional reporting by agencies
