Fox Corp and Fox News reached a settlement with Dominion Voting Systems’ for $787.5 million (£633 million) just moments before a jury trial was set to begin in the high profile defamation lawsuit.
The 11th hour announcement came after jurors had been seated and lawyers were preparing to make opening statements for a trial in Wilmington, Delaware that had been expected to last six weeks.
The judge overseeing the defamation lawsuit, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis, announced on Tuesday that the parties “have resolved their case” and dismissed the jury just as the trial was to begin.
The announcement averts a prolonged trial in a case that exposed how the top-rated network chased viewers by spreading false claims about the 2020 presidential election.
Dominion had sought $1.6 billion (£1.29 million) in damages in the lawsuit filed in 2021.
“We acknowledge the court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false,” Fox said in a statement.
“This settlement reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards. We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues.”
At issue in the lawsuit was whether Fox was liable for airing the false claims that Denver-based Dominion’s ballot-counting machines were used to manipulate the 2020 US election in favor of Democrat Joe Biden over Republican then-President Donald Trump.
Dominion argued that these on-air claims caused the company “enormous and irreparable economic harm.”
Judge Davis had ordered a one-day trial postponement on Monday before another delay on Tuesday, apparently as the two sides hammered out a deal.
The deal spares Fox the peril of having some of its best-known figures called to the witness stand and subjected to potentially withering questioning, including executives such as Rupert Murdoch, the 92-year-old media mogul who serves as Fox Corp chairman, and Fox CEO Suzanne Scott as well as on-air hosts including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro.
The decision to settle also followed a ruling by the judge last month that Fox could not invoke free speech protections under the US Constitution in its defense.
Fox News is the most-watched US cable news network, according to Nielsen.
The primary question for jurors was to be whether Fox knowingly spread false information or recklessly disregarded the truth, the standard of “actual malice” that Dominion must show to prevail in a defamation case.
In February court filings, Dominion cited a trove of internal communications in which Murdoch and other Fox figures privately acknowledged that the vote-rigging claims made about Dominion on-air were false.
Dominion said Fox amplified the untrue claims to boost its ratings and prevent its viewers from migrating to other media competitors on the right including One America News Network, which Dominion is suing separately.
Adding to the legal risks for Fox, another US voting technology company, Smartmatic, is pursuing its own defamation lawsuit seeking $2.7 billion in damages in a New York state court. Fox Corp reported nearly $14 billion (£11 billion) in annual revenue last year.
Dominion in 2021 sued Fox Corp and Fox News, contending that its business was ruined by the false vote-rigging claims that were aired by the influential American cable news outlet known for its roster of conservative commentators.
The complaints referenced instances in which Trump allies including his former lawyers Rudolph Giuliani and Sidney Powell appeared on Fox News to advance the false allegations about Dominion.
Dominion obtained internal communications and testimony from Murdoch and other Fox News executives and commentators.
Under questioning from a Dominion lawyer, Murdoch testified that he thought everything about the election was on the “up-and-up” and doubted the rigging claims from the very beginning, according to Dominion’s filing.
Asked if he could have intervened to stop Giuliani from continuing to spread falsehoods on air, Murdoch responded, “I could have. But I didn’t,” the filing said.
