Fox Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch to Be Questioned Under Oath for Defamation
2022.12.13 06:17
Fox Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch to Be Questioned Under Oath for Defamation
Budrigannews.com – In a defamation lawsuit, Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch will be questioned under oath on Tuesday regarding his network’s coverage of unsubstantiated claims of vote rigging during the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Dominion Voting Systems, a provider of election technology, has filed a lawsuit against Fox News Network, claiming that the network spread false claims that its machines were used to rig the 2020 election against Republican Donald Trump and in favor of Democratic rival Joe Biden. Dominion Voting Systems is seeking $1.6 billion in damages.
Fox has contended that it reserved a privilege to provide details regarding Trump’s cases of vote control and that Territory’s claim would smother press opportunity. In December 2021, a judge rejected the network’s attempt to throw out the case. A representative for Fox declined to comment.
Dominion issued a statement stating, “Fox knowingly spread lies from the highest levels down.”
In the case, which is part of a multi-front legal campaign by Dominion against Fox and other conservative outlets and commentators who accused the company of conspiring to oust Trump, the most prominent figure to be questioned is 91-year-old Rupert Murdoch.
The deposition comes as News Corp. (NASDAQ:) special committees of the boards of directors and nearly a decade after the companies split, the Murdoch-controlled Fox Corporation is looking into a proposal from Murdoch to re-combine.
According to a filing in Delaware Superior Court, Dominion lawyers will question Murdoch on Tuesday and Wednesday via videoconference. The public will not be able to attend the session.
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Dominion has also sought communications from Murdoch, his son Lachlan Murdoch, and other Fox News employees in an effort to demonstrate that the network either recklessly ignored the accuracy of the statements it aired or knew they were false. In defamation cases, public figures must demonstrate this level of “actual malice” in order to prevail.
Dominion has an “air-tight” case for actual malice, according to defamation lawyer Doug Mirell, who has followed the litigation. Fox hosts made vote-rigging allegations “well after it was quite clear that these claims were demonstrably false.”
In its lawsuit filed in March 2021, Dominion claimed that Fox amplified the false theories in order to increase its ratings and keep up with hard-right rivals like One America News Network, which Dominion is also suing. According to the complaint, Trump allies Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell falsely claimed that Dominion software may have manipulated vote counts in favor of Biden after the 2020 presidential election.
For instance, Powell made an appearance on Sean Hannity’s show on November 30, 2020, during which she erroneously claimed that Dominion machines “ran an algorithm that shaved off votes from Trump and awarded them to Biden.” Furthermore, they utilized the machines to waste huge groups of votes that ought to have been granted to President Trump.”
Dominion has been questioning a slew of Fox News hosts, executives, and producers for several months prior to Murdoch’s high-stakes deposition on Tuesday.
Lachlan Murdoch, the eldest son of Murdoch and executive chair and CEO of Fox Corp., took a deposition in Los Angeles on December 5. In October, James Murdoch, the other son of Murdoch, was questioned.
According to court records, in addition to former host Lou Dobbs, Fox hosts and co-hosts Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Jeanine Pirro, and Bret Baier have also been questioned in recent months. Depositions have also been taken by Fox News President Jay Wallace and Chief Executive Suzanne Scott.
