Settlement reached in Fox vs Dominion lawsuit

A last-minute settlement has been announced in Dominion Voting Systems’ landmark defamation lawsuit against Fox News, as revealed by the parties in court on Tuesday.

The settlement was reportedly negotiated just before the trial was set to begin in Wilmington, Delaware.

Following the swearing-in of the jury early Tuesday, a surprising hours-long delay halted court proceedings, fueling speculation that a settlement was in progress.

Implications: The timely resolution means the high-profile case will not move to trial. By settling with Dominion, key Fox News executives and major on-air personalities will be avoiding testimony regarding their coverage of the 2020 election that contained numerous falsehoods about voter fraud.

Details surrounding the settlement were not immediately disclosed and may remain confidential indefinitely.

Additional context: Dominion sought $1.6 billion in damages from Fox News in its lawsuit. The network strongly contended in pretrial discussions that this figure was overstated and did not accurately reflect the potential damages Dominion could have incurred due to Fox’s broadcasts in 2020.

Both Fox News and Fox Corporation—its parent company, also a defendant—assert that they did not defame Dominion and deem the lawsuit as a misguided attack on press freedoms. They rejected Dominion’s assertion that they propagated these election conspiracies to bolster their plummeting ratings after the 2020 election.

While the Dominion case has concluded, Fox News is still contending with a separate significant defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic, another voting technology company that faced defamation on Fox shows following the 2020 election. This case is still in the discovery phase, with a trial not anticipated for some time.