Fox Inc. according to court documents filed in a lawsuit over Fox News’ coverage of former President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated election fraud claims, Chairman Rupert Murdoch said under oath that he thinks the 2020 presidential election was free, fair, and not stolen.
In January, Dominion Voting Systems’ attorneys questioned Murdoch under oath, asking him, “Do you believe that the 2020 presidential election was free and fair?
”He answered, “Yeah,” according to the transcript.
Later, he declared, “The election was not stolen.
Dominion is suing Fox News for $1.6 billion, claiming that the outlet destroyed the company’s operations by airing fabricated assertions by Donald Trump’s attorneys that Dominion had tampered with votes in the 2020 election.
The lawsuit’s exhibits, scheduled to go to trial next month, were made available late on Tuesday.
They revealed more about internal doubts at Fox regarding the allegations of fraud and the network’s concern over viewers upset with its election-night announcement that Democrat Joe Biden had won Arizona.
This evidence and prior court documents show how Fox executives and hosts continued to tout these claims to viewers despite severe internal reservations and denials.
Federal and state election officials, comprehensive studies in battleground areas, and Trump’s attorney general found no significant fraud that could have affected the outcome of the 2020 election. They also didn’t find any solid proof that the vote was rigged.
To create the impression that Dominion ignored the facts to maintain its audience, Fox contends that Dominion is fabricating its claims of lost business and has cherry-picked and misrepresented statements by Fox hosts and leaders.
The company complained in a statement released on Tuesday that “to twist and even misattribute quotes to the highest levels of our company is truly beyond the pale” and that “Dominion has been caught red-handed using more distortions and misinformation in their PR campaign to smear Fox News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press.”
According to the records, senior Fox executives discussed how to appease Trump’s team’s ire about the election outcome, including by swiftly firing the Washington executive responsible for the Arizona choice.
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