Dominion wins partial victory in defamation lawsuit against Fox News as case heads to high-profile jury trial

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} A Delaware judge has denied a motion for summary judgment from Fox News in a defamation case brought against the company from Dominion Voting Systems, the subject of baseless conspiracy theories tied to the 2020 presidential election that made their way on the network’s airwaves. “Therefore, the Court will grant summary judgment in favor of Dominion on the element of falsity.” It will be up to a jury, then, to determine whether Fox News defamed Dominion by repeatedly platforming false claims that the company manipulated the outcome of the 2020 presidential election to ensure Donald Trump’s loss. “Fox will continue to fiercely advocate for the rights of free speech and a free press as we move into the next phase of these proceedings.” A statement from Dominion said the company looks forward to a trial, and is “gratified by the court’s thorough ruling soundly rejecting all of Fox’s arguments and defenses, and finding as a matter of law that their statements about Dominion are false.” Private admissions detailed in court filings show text messages, emails and sworn testimony among Fox News personalities and executives questioning or ridiculing unreliable guests and dubious arguments about the company and the 2020 election while at the same time conceding that publicly rejecting those claims would risk alienating Fox viewers. The hurdles for “actual malice” are outlined in Supreme Court precedent established in The New York Times v Sullivan, a landmark press freedom case from 1964 that has also been at the centre of right-wing attacks on the media, including recent lawsuits from Sarah Palin and Donald Trump, who have sought to strip that precedent, rather than defend it, in the case of Fox News.