Dominion v. Fox News Lawsuit: Discovery, Sanctions, and Settlement

The Dominion v. Fox News lawsuit ended on April 18, 2023, when Fox agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million to settle claims that the network defamed the company by broadcasting false 2020 election-fraud conspiracy theories. It is the largest known defamation settlement in American history. Fox did not apologize and did not issue an on-air retraction.¹

What Dominion Accused Fox of Doing

After the 2020 presidential election, Fox aired repeated claims that Dominion had rigged the vote through manipulated software, ties to Venezuela, and kickbacks to government officials. Dominion filed suit against Fox News Network in the Superior Court of Delaware on March 26, 2021, and a companion suit against Fox Corporation on November 8, 2021. The cases were consolidated in December 2022.²

The complaint named Maria Bartiromo, Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, and Jeanine Pirro among the hosts who put the claims on air, and alleged Fox did so to win back viewers who had drifted to competitors after Fox called Arizona for Joe Biden on election night.³

What Discovery Revealed

The lawsuit produced thousands of internal messages, emails, and depositions showing what Fox personnel knew privately while promoting the fraud claims on air.

Fox’s Own Fact-Checkers Called the Claims False

Fox’s internal research division, the “Brainroom,” concluded on November 13, 2020, that claims about Dominion switching or deleting votes were “100% false” and that there was “no evidence of widespread fraud.” David Clark, Fox’s senior vice president for weekend news, testified that if the Brainroom concluded allegations were false, they “never should have been aired.”⁴ Guests kept repeating the claims anyway.

Hosts and Executives Doubted the Story Privately

Anchor Bret Baier texted Fox News President Jay Wallace on November 5, 2020: “How is that ok? None of that is true as far as we can tell.” Wallace replied: “We need to fact check this crap. It would help us.”⁴ Fox’s chief legal and policy officer, Viet Dinh, warned leadership on November 19 that “Hannity is getting awfully close to the line with his commentary and guests tonight.” Executive Raj Shah called Sidney Powell’s election-fraud claims “outlandish” in a November 23 email to Lachlan Murdoch, CEO Suzanne Scott, and Dinh.⁵

Maria Bartiromo, by contrast, emailed her producer before interviewing Powell: “We have to go to a full on war. They have used all systems to defraud.”

Rupert Murdoch’s Deposition

Fox Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch testified under oath that he “seriously doubted” the massive-fraud claims “from the very beginning.” He acknowledged that while Fox as a corporate entity did not endorse the stolen-election narrative, hosts Lou Dobbs, Bartiromo, and Pirro did. He said it was “wrong” for Tucker Carlson to host MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell on January 26, 2021, to repeat allegations against Dominion without pushing back.⁵

In a January 20, 2021, email to Scott, Murdoch wrote: “Trump insisting on the election being stolen and convincing 25% of Americans was a huge disservice to the country. Pretty much a crime. Inevitable it blew up Jan 6th.”⁴

The Ratings Concern

Internal messages showed Fox executives worried about losing viewers to Newsmax after the Arizona call. On November 8, 2020, Murdoch emailed Scott that Fox was “Getting creamed by CNN!” Scott told Murdoch the next day the network needed to “make sure they know we aren’t abandoning them,” referring to conservative viewers. Shah warned that positive impressions of Fox had “dropped precipitously” among the core audience.⁶

How the Judge’s Rulings Shaped the Case

Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric M. Davis presided over the consolidated cases, and his pretrial rulings steadily stripped away Fox’s defenses.

In a March 31, 2023, summary judgment opinion, Judge Davis wrote that it was “CRYSTAL clear that none of the statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true.” He granted Dominion partial summary judgment on falsity and on whether Fox had published the statements: “FNN is not a passive entity. FNN controls what is broadcast on its various networks.”⁷

Judge Davis rejected Fox’s “neutral reportage” privilege, finding the evidence did not support “good-faith, disinterested reporting.” He also rejected the argument that the broadcasts were protected opinion, ruling they “were not pure opinion where they were made by newscasters holding themselves out to be sources of accurate information.” That left only one issue for the jury: actual malice, the standard from New York Times Co. v. Sullivan requiring proof that Fox made the statements knowing they were false or with reckless disregard for the truth.⁸

Sanctions Just Before Trial

Days before trial, Judge Davis sanctioned Fox for failing to be “straightforward” about evidence disclosure. Dominion’s lawyers revealed that Fox had belatedly turned over recordings, made by former producer Abby Grossberg, of Bartiromo’s conversations with Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.⁹ Separately, Fox had earlier argued that Rupert Murdoch and Fox Corporation should be dropped because Murdoch had no role managing Fox News. Fox later disclosed that Murdoch was in fact a corporate officer at Fox News with the title of Executive Chair. Judge Davis said he would “very likely appoint a special master” to investigate whether that fact had been intentionally withheld.¹⁰

The Settlement

Fox and Dominion announced the $787.5 million settlement on April 18, 2023, with jury selection already underway. The deal averted a trial that would have compelled testimony from Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, senior Fox executives, and the network’s most prominent hosts.¹

Fox did not admit wrongdoing. Its statement acknowledged “the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false” and called the settlement a reflection of “FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards.”¹¹ Dominion attorney Stephen Shackelford said, “Money is accountability.” The company did not secure any public correction or on-air apology.¹²

Legal scholars read the settlement figure as evidence that Fox lacked confidence in beating the actual malice question at trial. University of Pennsylvania professor Cary Coglianese described Judge Davis’s pretrial rulings as putting Dominion at “third base.” Assistant Professor Amanda Shanor said the case showed that the Sullivan standard is “not toothless” and that the First Amendment does not protect “knowing lies about elections.”¹³

Why the “It Was Just Opinion” Defense Failed

Fox had used an opinion-and-hyperbole defense successfully before. In 2020, U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil dismissed Karen McDougal’s defamation suit over Tucker Carlson’s on-air characterization of her actions as “a classic case of extortion,” ruling that the “general tenor” of Carlson’s show made clear he was engaging in “exaggeration” and “non-literal commentary” rather than stating facts. Fox’s lawyers had argued that a “reasonable viewer” would approach the show “with an appropriate amount of skepticism.”¹⁴

That defense did not survive in the Dominion case. Judge Davis drew a distinction that mattered: the election-fraud claims were delivered by hosts presenting themselves as sources of accurate information, and viewers could reasonably interpret what they heard as “actual assertions of fact.”⁷

One point of confusion worth clearing up: neither ruling classified Fox News as “entertainment” rather than “news.” The McDougal decision was a narrow, segment-specific finding, and no U.S. regulatory body has authority to designate cable channels as one or the other. The FCC has confirmed it has no such rules or licensing requirements for cable networks.¹⁵

What Is Still Pending

The Dominion case is resolved, but Fox faces a separate defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic, another voting technology company. Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion suit in February 2021 over similar 2020 election broadcasts.¹⁶

In October 2025, the Department of Justice charged Smartmatic’s parent company and three executives with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, alleging a $1 million bribery scheme tied to the 2016 Philippine elections. The indictment does not allege fraud or rigging in U.S. elections, but Fox has argued it undermines Smartmatic’s damages case.¹⁷ New York State Supreme Court Justice David B. Cohen denied Fox’s request to stay the civil case in November 2025, and both sides argued cross-motions for summary judgment on December 2, 2025.¹⁸

In May 2026, the Appellate Division vacated the case’s Note of Issue to allow Fox additional discovery into the indictment’s impact on Smartmatic’s business and damages claims, while again denying a full stay. The court limited that discovery to the impact of the criminal allegations, not their truth.¹⁹ As of mid-2026, the Smartmatic case has not gone to trial and no settlement has been reached.

1
Reuters. Fox, Dominion Reach $787.5M Settlement
2
Justia. US Dominion Inc v Fox News Network LLC, N21C-03-257 EMD
3
Just Security. Dominion Complaint Against Fox News Network
4
NBC News. Dominion Releases Previously Redacted Slides in Fox News Lawsuit
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New York Times. Dominion Fox News Court Documents
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Delaware Superior Court. US Dominion Inc v Fox News Network, Summary Judgment Opinion
7
First Amendment Watch. Jury to Decide if Fox Knowingly Spread False Information About Dominion
8
Brennan Center for Justice. Dominion Voting’s Libel Suits, the First Amendment, and Actual Malice
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CBS News. Delaware Judge Sanctions Fox News Lawyers in Dominion Voting Systems Lawsuit
10
New York Times. Fox News Sanctioned by Judge in Dominion Case
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Fox News Press. Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems Reach Settlement
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The Conversation. Dominion Threw Away Its Shot by Not Requiring a Correction and Apology From Fox News
13
University of Pennsylvania Law School. Fox News Defamation Settlement
14
NPR. Fox’s Lawyers Argue Tucker Carlson Is Not a Credible Source of News
15
Snopes. Fox News Entertainment Classification Fact Check
16
NPR. Fox News Smartmatic Lawsuit Election Claims
17
CNN. Smartmatic DOJ Fox Giuliani Bribery Philippines
18
Courthouse News Service. Fox Loses Bid to Pause Smartmatic Defamation Case
19
New York Courts. Smartmatic USA Corp v Fox Corp, Appellate Division Ruling