Fox News-Dominion defamation trial postponed; settlement talk speculation; The judge wants to reveal more on Monday

The start of Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, originally set to begin Monday, has now been pushed back to Tuesday.

The delay immediately sparked speculation that some sort of settlement talks were in the works, as is not uncommon at the last minute before a high-stakes trial goes to court. A well-informed legal source said there had been talks but no agreement and the situation remained volatile. A Dominion spokeswoman declined to comment, and a Fox News spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Also for the also sued broadcaster and parent company Fox Corp. a comparison would not be unusual. Last week, Fox News settled a defamation suit by Venezuelan businessman Majed Khalil, who sued the network over a broadcast and tweet by Lou Dobbs that linked him to voter fraud. Rupert Murdoch’s media empire also settled a decade ago in legal disputes related to the British phone hacking scandal.

“The court has decided to continue the trial, including jury selection, until Tuesday, April 18, 2023 at 9 a.m.,” Judge Eric M. Davis said in a statement Sunday. “I will make such an announcement tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. in Courtroom 7E.”

A jury was to be selected late last week, but Davis postponed the final phase of that process until Monday later Thursday.

Dominion sued Fox News and later its parent company, Fox Corp. with allegations that its hosts and guests reinforced false allegations that the voting system company was involved in manipulating the results of the 2020 presidential election. report on the newsworthy allegations by Donald Trump.

Given the stakes, some have called the case the “defamation trial of the century,” with Rupert Murdoch expected to testify live while a host of Fox News personalities, including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, are on the witness list. .

Fox has also faced some legal backlash this past week.

Davis made clear during a preliminary hearing that he would not allow Fox to use its defense that the newsworthiness of Trump’s election claims exempted the company from defamation liability. The judge was also angered by Fox’s lawyers after they recently revealed to him that Murdoch is not only a director of Fox Corp., the station’s parent company, but also of Fox News. Davis said he plans to send a special counsel to investigate whether Fox’s lawyers withheld evidence at key points in the discovery process.

In an order, the judge also ruled it was “absolutely clear that none of Dominion’s statements about the 2020 election are true.” And he also dismissed Fox’s argument that it was shielded from liability for “neutral” reporting privilege and for reporting on regulatory proceedings.