In depositions for an ongoing defamation lawsuit, high-level figures at Fox including hosts Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson indicated they didn’t believe claims about sweeping fraud — which many allegations tie to the election technology company Dominion Voting Systems — swinging the last presidential election.
These revelations could be critical to Dominion proving its defamation case at trial when jury proceedings start in April next year. Knowledge of those responsible for what Fox was promoting, including an interview election conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell did on Hannity’s show, regarding the lack of truth to claims of widespread fraud could clinch it. According to Dominion’s legal team in this case, Hannity was unequivocal under oath in asserting he never believed the notion of a stolen election — a length of time that includes when he hosted Powell on his show and spoke with her in a generally approving manner. “I did not believe it for one second,” he said. If those at Fox provably failed to conduct due diligence regarding election claims those on air were propagating, that could also weigh in favor of Dominion.
During court proceedings on Wednesday, Stephen Shackelford, a Dominion attorney, specifically named Carlson and Meade Cooper, a Fox executive responsible for the prime-time line-up. “Many of the highest-ranking Fox people have admitted under oath that they never believed the Dominion lies,” the attorney said, pointing to those two. Shackelford also brought up texts Carlson sent in the final two months of 2020, but Delaware Judge Eric M. Davis stopped him, so The New York Times said it’s unclear what was in those messages. They could show Carlson expressing doubts as the conspiracy theories first spread, but that’s unconfirmed. Fox has already provided Dominion with over 52,000 documents in this case, a list no doubt stretching across many more individual pages.
On Wednesday, Davis ruled against Smartmatic, which is also suing Fox over lies implicating that company in imaginary fraud in the 2020 election, obtaining materials Fox made available for Dominion in this case. Davis also ruled against making public certain pieces of what Fox has turned over, including communications among some of Fox’s staff and a portion of a deposition in which the witness described journalistic procedures at a network program. However, Davis left the option available of releasing evidence in the future, concluding potentially embarrassing contents wouldn’t be enough to keep something shielded.
Dominion and Smartmatic have brought a large array of other defamation litigation over claims about the 2020 election implicating the companies. Other targets include Rudy Giuliani, Mike Lindell, and Powell herself. A Dominion lawyer noted in Wednesday court proceedings that no Fox witnesses had shared any supporting evidence for the contested allegations made about Dominion — something obviously to be expected. Staff there have repeatedly been targeted by threats to their safety and lives. Also revealed in court on Wednesday was that a Fox employee pressed Trump’s team after the last election to ditch Powell and called her allegations about the election “outlandish” — something else pointing to knowledge of what was real inside Fox, no matter what was on the airwaves.
Image: Gage Skidmore/ Creative Commons
