Judge sanctions Fox News in Dominion lawsuit
A person walks past the Fox News Headquarters at the News Corporation building in New York City on March 9, 2023. – Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox News and parent company Fox Corp. over election fraud claims. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP) (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
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(The Hill) — A judge in Delaware has sanctioned Fox News for withholding evidence in Dominion Voting Systems’ blockbuster lawsuit against the company just days before the matter is set to go to trial.
Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis expressed anger with the network’s lawyers and suggested he could order an investigation into an effort to withhold evidence from Dominion’s team as part of its process of discovery, according to a person in the courtroom during a pre-trail hearing on Wednesday.
Davis’s ruling came after lawyers for Dominion played a never-before-revealed recording they obtained from former Fox producer Abby Grossberg of Rudy Giuliani, a top aide to former President Trump, speaking with Fox employees. Dominion’s lawyers said Grossberg has more recordings from her time inside Fox that she has shared with the company’s legal team.
Grossberg, who is also suing Fox and was fired by the network earlier this year, has said she was pressured by Fox’s lawyers to give false testimony in the Dominion case.
The judge on Wednesday instructed Fox’s lawyers to preserve their communications, and his ruling could open Fox up to another round of discovery that could unearth more revelations about the inner workings at the cable news giant around the time of the election.
Dominion is accusing Fox of knowingly airing false information about its software, claims that were promoted by Trump, Giuliani and others.
Fox has defended itself on First Amendment grounds and has said the internal communications of its top hosts and executives have been “cherry picked” to drum up press coverage of the case.
Davis’s ruling comes the day after Dominion’s attorneys told the judge that they learned just this week that Rupert Murdoch, who could be called to testify as a witness in the case, also was an officer of Fox News, holding the title of executive chair. That was contrary to repeated assertions by Fox attorneys.
Fox said in a statement late Tuesday said “Rupert Murdoch has been listed as executive chairman of FOX News in our SEC filings since 2019 and this filing was referenced by Dominion’s own attorney during his deposition.”
The network did not immediately respond to a request for comment on judge’s decision to sanction the company.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.