Former Attorney General Bill Barr was subpoenaed over the weekend by a court hearing the defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News over claims the network aired defamatory claims about the company after the 2020 election.
Mr Barr was sent the subpoena after a court order signed on Friday and dated for Saturday; his summons follows that of former NewsCorp board member James Murdoch, son of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.
It’s unknown exactly what testimony attorneys for Dominion will seek from Mr Barr, but it will most likely centre around his fall 2020 declaration that the 2020 election had been free of the kind of widespread fraud or abuse that could have affected the results in a meaningful way.
To date, none of the Trump campaign’s claims of such fraud have been backed up by hard evidence, and in fact some states have undergone hand recounts that have certified the original election results.
Mr Barr earned Donald Trump’s fury with his refusal to back up his campaign to overturn the election, according to media reports, resulting in the president even considering firing him only to be talked down after top officials at the DOJ threatened to resign.
Now his declaration of the integrity of the election is being sought as evidence by both Dominion’s private lawsuit and the very public January 6 committee hearings which have highlighted Mr Barr’s testimony as well as remarks from other close advisers to Donald Trump including Jared and Ivanka Trump who accepted that the claims of fraud were unfounded.
Dominion is seeking $1.6bn in damages against Fox, a shockingly-high sum, over claims made by the network’s hosts and guests in the days following the 2020 election when much of right-wing media was consumed by election fraud conspiracies. The company has filed a similar suit against Fox’s conservative competitor, NewsMax.
“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, serving as nothing more than a flagrant attempt to deter our journalists from doing their jobs,” a Fox News spokesperson said.
On its site, Dominion Voting Systems states that “Lies and misinformation have severely damaged our company and diminished the credibility of U.S. elections, subjecting hardworking public officials and Dominion employees to harassment and death threats. Dominion is taking steps to right these wrongs through our judicial system.”
