Fox defamation case pushed back hours before expected start

The $1.6bn defamation trial against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems has been pushed back by a day by the judge, just hours before the scheduled start of the landmark case on Monday, raising expectations of a last-minute settlement.

In a statement published late on Sunday night, Judge Eric Davis, who is overseeing the case in Delaware, where both companies are incorporated, said that the court had decided to delay the start of the trial until Tuesday.

He did not provide a reason for the delay to the trial, which had been scheduled to start on Monday morning with the jury being seated and opening statements.

The decision to postpone the trial has raised the prospect of an eleventh-hour settlement being sought by Fox in the case, which is expected to involve Fox Corp chair Rupert Murdoch testifying, alongside Fox executives and hosts such as Sean Hannity.

The Wall Street Journal, which is also owned by Murdoch, reported that Fox was pursuing settlement talks shortly before the judge’s announcement.

The defamation lawsuit relates to the network’s coverage of the 2020 US presidential election, with allegations that Fox knowingly aired false conspiracy theories over whether the voting machine maker’s devices were rigged in favour of President Joe Biden.

Despite the notoriously high standard for proving defamation in the US, several legal analysts said Fox faced an “uphill battle” after pre-trial filings exposed a sometimes frantic and fractious behind-the-scenes news-gathering process.

Fox was not immediately available for comment. Dominion declined to comment on Sunday evening.

The two sides are contesting a libel claim over whether Fox damaged the reputation of Dominion by allowing baseless claims that its machines secretly changed votes for Donald Trump’s democratic rival in 2020.

Dominion alleges that Fox executives knew that they were airing false statements and continued to do so as the broadcaster battled for right-wing viewers against rival networks and media outlets. Dominion wants $1.6bn in damages — although this figure is disputed by Fox.

In a statement ahead of the trial, Fox said the lawsuit was “a political crusade in search of a financial windfall” and claimed “the real cost [of a loss] would be cherished first amendment rights”.

It added that Dominion had pushed “misleading information to generate headlines” while Fox was “steadfast in protecting the rights of a free press”.

Dominion said it was a “strong believer in the first amendment”, but the law “does not shield broadcasters that knowingly or recklessly spread lies”.

It added that “following Fox’s defamatory statements, Dominion’s business suffered enormously, and its claim for compensatory damages is based on industry-standard valuation metrics and conservative methodologies”.