Dominion Voting Systems’ historic defamation lawsuit against Fox News has reached a last-second settlement, the parties announced in court Tuesday.
“Both parties have settled their cases,” Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis said. “Your presence … is very important. The parties cannot resolve their situation without you,” the judge told jurors before firing them.
The settlement apparently came as the trial was about to give opening statements in Wilmington, Delaware.
Unexplained hours-long delays halted court proceedings after being sworn in to a jury early on Tuesday, reigniting widespread speculation that a deal was quietly under way.
what does that mean: The last-minute deal means the high-profile case is effectively closed and won’t go to trial. With the Dominion settlement, influential Fox News executives and prominent broadcast personalities will not testify about their 2020 election coverage, which was rife with lies about voter fraud.
Details of the settlement were not immediately released and may never be made public.
More information on this case: In the lawsuit, Dominion is seeking $1.6 billion in damages from Fox News. The right-wing network argued loudly during the pretrial proceedings that the figure was inflated and didn’t accurately reflect the potential damage Dominion could suffer from Fox’s 2020 broadcast.
Fox News and Fox Corporation — its parent company, which is also a defendant — say they never defamed Dominion and say the case is a baseless attack on press freedom. They deny Dominion’s claim that they are promoting these electoral plots to salvage declining approval ratings following the 2020 election.
While the Dominion case is now closed, Fox News still faces a second major defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic, another voting technology company that was discredited on Fox programming after the 2020 election. The case is still under investigation and is not expected to go to trial anytime soon.