Wilmington, Delaware
CNN
—
Fox News reached a last-minute settlement with Dominion Voting Systems on Tuesday as the case moved toward opening statements, paying more than $787 million to end a mammoth two-year legal battle that publicly shattered credibility of the right network.
Fox News’ $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems is the largest publicly known defamation settlement in US history involving a media company.
The settlement was announced hours after the jury was sworn in Delaware Superior Court. Rumors of a settlement swirled in the courthouse when, after a lunch break, the proceedings were dramatically halted for nearly three hours without explanation as the parties apparently reached an agreement.
“The parties have settled their case,” said Judge Eric Davis, before dismissing the 12-member jury, crediting them with giving the parties an impetus to reach a settlement, effusively praising lawyers for both parties and delivering the so-called media “Judgment of the Century” before it could begin.
The groundbreaking settlement “represents vindication and liability,” Dominion attorney Justin Nelson said. “For our democracy to last for another 250 years, and hopefully much longer, we must share a commitment to the facts… Today represents a resounding endorsement of truth and democracy.”
The right-wing network said in a statement that it “recognizes[s] Court Rulings Finding Certain Claims About Dominion False,” referring to Davis’ recent ruling that 20 Fox News broadcasts from late 2020 contained blatantly false claims that Dominion rigged the presidential election. But Fox won’t have to admit on air that spread lies about Dominion, a Dominion representative told CNN.
The $787.5 million payment is about half of the $1.6 billion Dominion was initially seeking, though it is nearly 10 times the company’s valuation as of 2018 and roughly eight times its annual revenue in 2021. according to court documents.
The last-minute deal means the closely watched case is over and will not go to trial. By settling with Dominion, influential Fox News executives and prominent on-air personalities will be spared from testifying about its 2020 election coverage, which was filled with lies about voter fraud.
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The witness list included Fox Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch, his CEO son Lachlan Murdoch, and top Fox hosts like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson. Emails, text messages and deposition testimony made public during the case revealed that these figures, and many others at Fox, said privately in 2020 that the vote-rigging claims against Dominion were absurd. But the lies were broadcast on the air anyway.
Rupert Murdoch thought election denialism was “really crazy,” even as Fox personalities peddled those same claims to millions of viewers. Carlson said he “passionately” hates Donald Trump, whose presidency was a “disaster.” Hosts, producers, fact-checkers and top Fox executives privately said on-air claims of a stolen election were “curiously,” “dangerously reckless” and “mind-bogglingly insane.”
Those revelations generated months of blistering headlines for Fox as the case moved toward trial. By settling now, Fox deprived Dominion of the opportunity to further expose its dishonesty with weeks of evidence.
“This agreement reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards,” Fox said in a statement Tuesday. “We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, rather than the acrimony of a divisive trial, will allow the country to move forward from these issues.”
Fox News and its parent company Fox Corporation, which was also a defendant, maintain that they never defamed Dominion and say the case was a meritless assault on First Amendment press freedoms.
Speculation of a deal reached a fever pitch in recent days, particularly after the court on Sunday announced a one-day delay to the start of the trial, which was originally scheduled to begin on Monday.
The jury selection process concluded as planned Tuesday morning and both sides prepared for opening statements. They even briefly tangled with objections to specific slides in their presentations. But when proceedings did not resume promptly after lunch, the chances of a deal appeared to be increasing by the minute, even as top lawyers for both sides sat in the courtroom, staring at their phones and waiting.
The racially diverse jury of six men and six women was brought back into court, ready for their front-row seat to a landmark trial. But Davis, the judge, told the jury they helped spur a deal.
“Your presence here, short compared to what you thought, and uneventful in a sense, was extremely important,” Davis said. “Without you, the parties would not have been able to resolve their situation.”
Many on the Dominion side presented the agreement as a victory for democracy and truth itself.
“Fox has admitted to telling lies about Dominion that caused tremendous harm to my company, our employees and the customers we serve,” Dominion CEO John Poulos said outside court Tuesday.
Although the Dominion case is now over, Fox News is still facing a second major defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic, another voting technology company that was similarly smeared on Fox News programs after the 2020 election. This case is still in the discovery process and a trial is not expected anytime soon.
For its part, Dominion still has lawsuits pending against right-wing television networks Newsmax and OAN, as well as Trump allies Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Mike Lindell. All deny wrongdoing.
CNN’s Liam Reilly and Danny Freeman contributed to this story.
