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Fox Corp. was ordered to face a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit by Smartmatic Corp., one of two voting technology companies falsely accused on Fox News of rigging the 2020 US presidential election against <span data-wf-local-storage-key="xray-inline-tooltip" data-wf-template-id="caas-xray-inline-wafer-tooltip-template-with-close-e0786e82-fe3b-319d-aa97-b0f71b110796" data-wf-tooltip-position="bottom" data-wf-tooltip-text="Get info without
leaving the page.”>Donald Trump.
The decision Wednesday by a New York judge is the latest setback for Fox after the media giant agreed in April to pay $788 million to settle a similar suit by Dominion Voting Systems Inc., the other company targeted by the conspiracy theory. Fox continued airing the allegations even after they were widely debunked.
Justice David B. Cohen in Manhattan denied Fox Corp.’s motion to dismiss the suit after finding Smartmatic had sufficiently laid out claims that executives at the parent company — including Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch — were involved in directing the election coverage by its subsidiary. Fox News Network LLC, along with several of its current and former on-air personalties, are also named in the suit and previously lost their attempts to dismiss the case.
“In essence, plaintiffs allege that no programming, messaging, or employment decisions were made at News without Corp.’s knowledge, approval, and direction, thus rendering News wholly dominated by Corp.,” Cohen said in the ruling.
The decision sets up a possible trial on Smartmatic’s claims next year. Fox and Fox News have both argued their coverage is protected by the First Amendment right to free speech because they were covering important claims being made at the time by a sitting president and his lawyers…
