Dominion Voting Systems attorneys signaled Friday, after announcing a lawsuit against Fox News for allegedly spreading defamatory lies about the company, that they could potentially file additional lawsuits against certain Fox personalities.
“We have not excluded any parties, including individual Fox News agents referred to in the lawsuit,” Stephen Shackelford, attorney for Dominion’s case against Fox and partner with litigation firm Susman Godfrey, told reporters on a conference call.
He gave a similar response when asked specifically about Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo, who both play prominent roles in Dominion’s lawsuit against Fox.
“We haven’t ruled out suing these individual agents,” said Shackelford, “but ultimately the money stops with Fox.”
He later added, “I don’t think this will be the last lawsuit. All we can say at this point is to do our due diligence and look at the evidence.”
The Delaware Supreme Court lawsuit seeks damages of more than $ 1.6 billion.
Dominion has already filed separate federal lawsuits against former President Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani, attorney Sidney Powell, and MyPillow’s pro-Trump CEO Mike Lindell.
Dominion, whose machines are certified in 28 states, argues that each of these defendants defamed the company and badly damaged its reputation by falsely claiming it rigged the 2020 presidential election against Trump.
Trump lost to President Joe Biden, but never officially admitted the race. He spent months delving into a number of baseless conspiracy theories about electoral fraud and pressuring politicians to take steps that could undo Biden’s victory.
On January 6, he held a rally outside the White House calling on Vice President Mike Pence and other Republicans not to confirm Biden’s electoral college victory. A crowd of Trump’s supporters then stormed the U.S. Capitol and forced a joint congressional session to go into hiding. The invasion resulted in five deaths, including that of a U.S. Capitol police officer.
Dominion’s recent defamation lawsuit alleges that “as a result of the Fox-staged defamation campaign” employees at all levels of the company were repeatedly harassed. Some have even received death threats. And of course, Dominion’s business has suffered enormous and irreparable economic damage. “
The lawsuit accuses Fox of “spreading the lies of visually unreliable sources – adopted by Fox’s own on-air personalities – because the lies were good for Fox’s business.”
Among those allegedly unreliable sources is Powell, whose attorneys this week asked a judge to dismiss Dominion’s $ 1.3 billion defamation case against them.
Powell’s attorneys in that petition for dismissal claimed that “no sane person” would believe that their false claims and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election were “real statements of fact.”
Fox News Media said in a statement on Friday it was “proud” of its coverage of the 2020 election, “which is in the highest tradition of American journalism.” The company said it would “vigorously defend this unsubstantiated lawsuit in court”.
The Delaware legal complaint repeatedly refers to a number of current and former Fox presenters and on-air personalities, including Bartiromo, Dobbs, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro.
For example, Dobbs’s last name appears nearly 300 times in various forms in the 139-page court record. In early February, Fox canceled Dobbs’ show “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” which aired on Fox Business.
Both Fox News Network, LLC and Dominion Voting Systems, Inc. are based in Delaware, although both companies are headquartered in a different location.
“The disinformation campaign against our company has done us serious damage and undermined trust in American democratic institutions,” Dominion CEO John Poulos said in a statement on Friday morning.
“These lies have also endangered the personal safety of our employees and customers. No amount of money will repair the damage caused,” said Poulos.
Dominion legal advisor Tom Clare said in a statement that Fox “has endorsed, repeated, and broadcast a number of proven false but devastating lies about Dominion. Fox’s virus disinformation campaign reached over a billion people worldwide and caused Dominion.” enormous damage. “
