Donald Trump Rails Against Rupert Murdoch After Latest Revelations In Dominion Defamation Lawsuit Against Fox News; White House Responds — Update
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Donald Trump went on the attack against Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch following the latest revelations from Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against the media company.
“Why is Rupert Murdoch throwing his anchors under the table, which also happens to be killing his case and infuriating his viewers, who will again be leaving in droves – they already are,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, before making further unfounded and false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.
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In their latest filing made public on Monday, Dominion attorneys focused on Murdoch’s role in the aftermath of the election. According to the filing, Murdoch said in a recent deposition that some Fox News hosts “endorsed” Trump’s election claims. Murdoch found those claims to be “bulls— and damaging,” and in his deposition, he acknowledged that he “would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing” the election fraud allegations.
Trump also wrote, “There was so much Voter Fraud & Irregularities in the 2020 Presidential Election that it amazes me how weak and ineffective FoxNews is at portraying itself in the lawsuit against them. They look too scared and frightened to reveal the massive amounts of voter fraud & Irregularities already found, and it would actually help them in the lawsuit. Instead FoxNews wants to silence its anchors and reporters, the reason so many of their viewers fled.”
Dominion sued Fox News and Fox Corp. for $1.6 billion, alleging that Fox hosts and guests defamed the election systems company as they amplified false claims that the election systems company was involved in rigging the election. Through a flurry of texts, emails and depositions, Dominion is trying to show that Fox personalities and executives knew that the claims were false but, afraid of losing the Trump-backing audience, advanced them on the network programming anyway.
In its filing released on Monday, Fox News contends that Dominion is taking an “extreme, unsupported view” of defamation law, as the network was covering allegations by a sitting president of the United States. It also claims that the Dominion release of emails and text messages is “about what will generate headlines than what can withstand legal and factual scrutiny.”
Trump has recently been chiding Fox News for giving favorable coverage to a potential rival for the Republican nomination, Ron DeSantis.
In its filing, Dominion’s attorneys wrote that during the 2020 presidential campaign, “Murdoch provided Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, with Fox confidential information about Biden’s ads, along with debate strategy.” Dominion indicated that the claim is based on materials it has gathered from Murdoch, including his deposition and text messages.
Asked on Tuesday whether Biden was aware of the reports of Murdoch sharing the ads with Trump, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Olivia Dalton reiterated that “regardless of any new revelations” about the 2020 campaign, the president won the election.
“And these kinds of revelations aren’t particularly surprising to anyone who has tuned into Fox News lately,” she said.
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