A final-second settlement has been reached in Dominion Voting Systems’ historic defamation lawsuit against Fox News, the events introduced Tuesday in court docket.
“The parties have resolved their case,” Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis mentioned. “Your presence here… was extremely important. And without you, the parties would not have been able to resolve their situation,” the choose advised the jurors, earlier than dismissing them.
The settlement was apparently brokered whereas the trial was getting ready to opening statements in Wilmington, Delaware.
After swearing within the jury earlier Tuesday, an unexplained hours-long delay paused proceedings in court docket, which but once more triggered rampant hypothesis {that a} deal was quietly within the works.
What this implies: The last-minute deal means the intently watched case is successfully over and received’t proceed to trial. By settling with Dominion, influential Fox News executives and outstanding on-air personalities can be spared from testifying about their 2020 election protection, which was crammed with lies about voter fraud.
Details of the settlement weren’t instantly out there and may by no means change into public.
More on the case: In its lawsuit, Dominion sought $1.6 billion in damages from Fox News. The right-wing community argued vociferously in pretrial proceedings that this quantity was inflated and didn’t come close to precisely capturing the potential losses that Dominion may have suffered as a results of Fox’s 2020 broadcasts.
Fox News and Fox Corporation — its dad or mum firm, which was additionally a defendant — say they by no means defamed Dominion, and say the case is a meritless assault on press freedoms. They denied Dominion’s declare that they promoted these election conspiracies to save lots of their falling scores after the 2020 election.
While the Dominion case is now over, Fox News is still going through a second major defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic, one other voting expertise firm that was smeared on Fox reveals after the 2020 election. That case is still within the discovery course of, and a trial isn’t anticipated anytime quickly.