The Fox News Dominion settlement was an April 18, 2023 agreement in which Fox News Network LLC paid Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million to end a defamation lawsuit over the network’s broadcasts tying Dominion’s voting machines to a supposed plot to steal the 2020 presidential election. The deal was announced in Delaware Superior Court on the day jury selection was set to begin, and it ranks among the largest defamation payouts in U.S. history.1Reuters. Dominion’s Defamation Case Against Fox Poised for Trial After Delay
What Dominion Accused Fox Of
Dominion filed suit in March 2021, seeking $1.6 billion, and added a related complaint against Fox Corporation in November of that year. The two matters were consolidated under Judge Eric M. Davis in December 2022.2Justia. Dominion v. Fox News Network, N21C-03-257 EMD
The complaint alleged that after the November 2020 election, Fox hosts and guests repeatedly told viewers that Dominion machines had switched or deleted votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. Dominion said the claims were demonstrably false and that Fox kept airing them even after its own fact-checkers debunked them.
What Discovery Revealed
The pretrial record produced a striking picture of what was happening inside Fox while its programs promoted election fraud theories.
Fox’s internal research unit, the Brainroom, concluded on November 13, 2020 that there was no evidence of widespread fraud and that specific claims about Dominion switching or deleting votes were “100% false.” Then-CEO Suzanne Scott and network president Jay Wallace were briefed on those findings. Dominion sent more than 3,600 emails to Fox reporters and producers correcting the record, and a Dominion communications consultant contacted Scott and Wallace directly to warn them the allegations were “verifiably wrong.”3Delaware Superior Court. Dominion v. Fox News Network, Opinion on Summary Judgment Motions
Under oath, Rupert Murdoch conceded that several Fox hosts had “endorsed” the stolen-election narrative. Asked whether he could have kept Rudy Giuliani off the air, Murdoch testified: “I could have. But I didn’t.” Internal messages showed executives tracking a sharp ratings drop after Fox’s decision desk called Arizona for Biden and linking the decline to viewers moving to Newsmax and OAN at Trump’s urging.4NPR. Fox News, Dominion Voting, Rupert Murdoch, 2020 Election Fraud
Private messages from on-air personalities said much the same. Tucker Carlson described attorney Sidney Powell, who appeared on Fox pushing the Dominion theory, as a “psychopath” with “zero evidence.” Jeanine Pirro’s own executive producer called one of her post-election monologues “completely crazy.” Sean Hannity, as ratings fell, messaged producers that “we need to own the dominion story.” A producer for Laura Ingraham said Ingraham was skeptical of the claims because they “started on 8chan.”5NBC News. See What Fox News Tried to Redact in Dominion Defamation Case
The Rulings That Forced Fox’s Hand
Judge Davis narrowed the trial before it began. He ruled that 20 specific Fox statements about Dominion were statements of fact rather than protected opinion, and he found that Fox had aired false and damaging statements. The only question left for a jury was whether Fox acted with “actual malice” — knowing the statements were false, or broadcasting them with reckless disregard for the truth.6University of Pennsylvania Law School. Fox News Defamation Settlement
With those rulings in place, the parties settled hours before opening statements.
Terms of the Deal
Fox paid $787.5 million. It did not issue a public apology, and the settlement did not require any on-air retraction or acknowledgment of wrongdoing.7NPR. Fox News Settles Blockbuster Defamation Lawsuit With Dominion Voting Systems A Fox spokesman confirmed the payment was tax-deductible under U.S. law, and one estimate put the resulting tax savings at up to $213 million.8The New York Times. Fox Dominion Settlement Tax Break
Financial Impact
Fox Corporation ended 2022 with more than $4 billion in cash and reported $1.23 billion in net income for the prior fiscal year, so it absorbed the payment without selling assets.9BBC. Fox News Dominion Settlement The stock, trading around $34, closed down 16 cents on the day of the announcement. Analysts flagged one downstream risk: the settlement could weaken Fox in upcoming carriage talks with cable providers, roughly two-thirds of whose distribution deals were up for renegotiation in the coming years.10NBC News. Fox News Dominion Defamation Settlement Financial Impact
For Dominion’s owners, the number was transformative. Staple Street Capital, the New York private equity firm that had bought a 76 percent stake in Dominion for $38 million in 2018, stood to share proceeds with employees and other shareholders after fees and taxes. Its cut represented a return of more than 15 times the original investment.11CBS News. Fox News Dominion Voting Systems Lawsuit Settlement Staple Street Private Equity
Legal Significance Without a Verdict
Because the case settled, it creates no binding precedent. Legal scholars nonetheless treated the outcome as a marker for how the actual-malice standard operates in practice. Professor Amanda Shanor of the University of Pennsylvania said the standard from New York Times v. Sullivan is “highly speech-protective but is not toothless,” and that the size of the payment signals to news organizations that “knowing misinformation” carries “dramatic financial consequences.”6University of Pennsylvania Law School. Fox News Defamation Settlement The Knight First Amendment Institute called it a “rare case where imposing financial liability on a media outlet for publishing false statements seems to be justified.”12Knight First Amendment Institute. Knight Institute Comments on Settlement in Fox News Defamation Case
Shanor also noted the trade-off. By settling, Fox avoided a “fuller airing” of the evidence at trial, including sworn testimony from Murdoch, Carlson, and Hannity about the decisions behind the broadcasts.
The Cases That Followed
The Dominion settlement did not end Fox’s exposure over the same period of programming.
Smartmatic
Smartmatic, another voting technology company, sued Fox Corporation for $2.7 billion in February 2021 in New York State Supreme Court, naming co-defendants including Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, the estate of the late Lou Dobbs, Rudy Giuliani, and Sidney Powell.13NPR. Smartmatic Fox News Trial Defamation Election 2020 A New York appellate court cleared the case to proceed in January 2025, and summary judgment arguments were heard before Justice David B. Cohen in December 2025.14The New York Times. Smartmatic Fox News Defamation Case
The picture grew more complicated in October 2025, when federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida added Smartmatic as a corporate defendant in a superseding indictment charging the company and several former executives with Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations tied to $1 million in alleged bribes to a former Philippine elections official.15The New York Times. Smartmatic Bribery Indictment Philippines A company spokesman called the charges “wrong on the facts and wrong on the law” and alleged the prosecution was “politically influenced.” Fox asked to pause the defamation case; Justice Cohen refused, and the Appellate Division affirmed in May 2026 while granting Fox limited additional discovery into whether the indictment itself has hurt Smartmatic’s business, a question that bears on its lost-profits claim.16New York Courts. Smartmatic USA Corp. v. Fox Corp., 2026 NY Slip Op 02891 No trial date has been set.
Abby Grossberg
Former Fox producer Abby Grossberg, who worked on shows hosted by Bartiromo and Carlson, filed two suits alleging Fox attorneys coerced her into misleading deposition testimony in the Dominion case and that she endured a hostile, sexist workplace. She was fired days after filing. Grossberg had roughly 90 audio recordings involving Bartiromo, Giuliani, and Powell, and shared information from them with the special counsel investigating January 6.17CBS News. Fox News Lawsuit $12 Million Settlement Abby Grossberg Tucker Carlson Producer Fox settled with her for $12 million in June 2023, about two months after the Dominion deal. A Delaware judge had separately sanctioned Fox for withholding evidence in the Dominion case after Grossberg’s lawyers released tapes suggesting discovery had not been properly collected.18NBC News. Fox News Settles Lawsuit With Fired Producer Abby Grossberg for $12 Million
Shareholder Suit
In September 2023, five New York City pension funds and the State of Oregon filed a shareholder derivative action against Fox Corporation’s board, alleging breach of fiduciary duty. The complaint argued the board knowingly maintained a business model that prioritized audience-friendly narratives over factual accuracy, exposing the company to defamation liability. The plaintiffs sought to recover from individual directors the amounts Fox paid in settlements and legal fees, including the $787.5 million Dominion payment.19NYC Comptroller. NYC Pension Funds Sue Fox Corporation Board for Breach of Fiduciary Duty
Giuliani and Powell
Dominion filed separate $1.3 billion defamation suits against Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell in January 2021. Both were resolved through confidential settlements announced in late September 2025, with each party bearing its own legal costs.20ABC News. Dominion, Rudy Giuliani Reach Confidential Settlement in $1.3B Defamation Suit