Dominion Sues Fox News for $1.6 Billion in Defamation Lawsuit

Dominion Voting Systems filed a defamation suit against Fox News relating to the network’s reporting on the 2020 presidential election.

The lawsuit centers on unsubstantiated claims that the company helped to steal the election for President Joe Biden. Dominion filed the $1.6 billion case on Friday, according to the Associated Press (AP).

The company, which is a major firm in electronic election systems in the U.S., argues that Fox News “sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process,” according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by AP.

Some of the network’s personalities helped to highlight false claims about Dominion and the election, while Fox shows also sometimes hosted attorney Sidney Powell and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Powell and Giuliani were prominent figures in an effort to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election and shared unproven claims about Dominion’s alleged involvement in rigging the contest.

Some Fox News hosts did spend time debunking the false claims about the 2020 election but Dominion claims Fox ignored the company’s repeated efforts to set the record straight.

Dominion has already filed defamation lawsuits against Powell and Giuliani but Friday’s move against Fox News may be seen as an escalation of the firm’s efforts to formally debunk the claims made against it.

Attorneys for Dominion argue that Fox News behaved differently to other media outlets and promoted false claims as a means to explain former President Donald Trump’s defeat. Fox features many commentators who have been outspoken Trump supporters.

“This was a conscious, knowing business decision to endorse and repeat and broadcast these lies in order to keep its viewership,” said Justin Nelson, attorney with Susman Godfrey LLP.

Lawyers said Dominion has not yet filed lawsuits against individual Fox News personalities but that route remains open to them. Dominion is seeking $1.3 billion each from Powell and Giuliani.

“The buck stops with Fox on this,” said attorney Stephen Shackelford of Susman Godfrey. “Fox chose to put this on all of its many platforms. They rebroadcast, republished it on social media and other places.”

Despite claims from the former president and his allies that the 2020 election was somehow rigged against him, no credible evidence was produced to support this conclusion.

A series of lawsuits challenging the results of the election were thrown out and several courts dismissed the claims of mass voter fraud and other irregularities.

Fox News has been asked for comment on this article.

Update 3/26/21, 9.00 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include a new photo.

Protesters rally against Fox News outside the Fox News headquarters at the News Corporation building, March 13, 2019 in New York City. Dominion Voting Systems is suing the network for $1.6 billion. Drew Angerer/Getty Images