Former Trump AG Bill Barr subpoenaed in Fox News defamation case

Former Attorney General Bill Barr was subpoenaed over the weekend by a court hearing the defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News over claims the network aired defamatory claims about the company after the 2020 election.

Mr Barr was sent the subpoena after a court order signed on Friday and dated for Saturday; his summons follows that of former NewsCorp board member James Murdoch, son of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.

It’s unknown exactly what testimony attorneys for Dominion will seek from Mr Barr, but it will most likely center around his fall 2020 declaration that the 2020 election had been free of the kind of widespread fraud or abuse that could have affected the results in a meaningful way. To date, none of the Trump campaign’s claims of such fraud have been backed up by hard evidence, and in fact some states have undergone hand recounts that have certified the original election results.

Mr Barr earned Donald Trump’s fury with his refusal to back up his campaign to overturn the election, according to media reports, resulting in the president even considering firing him only to be talked down after top officials at the DOJ threatened to resign.

Now his declaration of the integrity of the election is being sought as evidence by both Dominion’s private lawsuit and the very public January 6 committee hearings which have highlighted Mr Barr’s testimony as well as remarks from other close advisers to Donald Trump including Jared and Ivanka Trump who accepted that the claims of fraud were unfounded.

Dominion is seeking $1.6 bn in damages against Fox, a shockingly-high sum, over claims made by the network’s hosts and guests in the days following the 2020 election when much of right-wing media was consumed by election fraud conspiracies. The company has filed a similar suit against Fox’s conservative competitor, NewsMax.

The Independent has reached out to Fox News for comment.

“Limiting the ability of the press to report freely on the American election process stands in stark contrast to the liberties on which this nation was founded,” a spokesperson for the network told The Hill in a statement last week, adding that the company was “confident we will prevail in this case”.

On its site, Dominion Voting Systems states that “Lies and misinformation have severely damaged our company and diminished the credibility of U.S. elections, subjecting hardworking public officials and Dominion employees to harassment and death threats. Dominion is taking steps to right these wrongs through our judicial system.”