WILMINGTON, Del. — Fox News said in a court filing Sunday that Dominion Voting Systems knocked “more than a half a billion dollars off” its original damages claim just as trial proceedings were scheduled to get underway.
The filing — a request to the court for clarification about evidence the network can present to the jury related to the question of damages — said Dominion had informed Fox it was “walking away from lost profit damages and will pursue only ‘lost enterprise value’ damages.”
“FOX has made clear that Dominion’s damages are wildly inflated which Dominion has now finally admitted at the 11th hour,” a Fox spokesperson said in a statement Monday.
April 17, 202305:12
Dominion disputed this, saying it has not reduced its claim. The company filed suit in 2021, arguing that Fox News defamed the company by airing baseless conspiracies about its voting machines “rigging” the 2020 election against Donald Trump and seeking $1.6 billion in damages.
“The damages claim remains. As Fox well knows, our damages exceed $1.6 billion,” a Dominion spokesperson said Monday.
Fox’s filing included an email from Dominion attorney Brian Farnan that said that the Dominion legal team “will not be presenting its claim for lost profits damages to the jury, given that it is duplicative of the lost enterprise value damages.”
In an earlier Dominion complaint circulated by Fox, Dominion pegged lost profits at approximately $600 million and lost enterprise value at $1 billion. Dominion is also seeking lawyers fees, security costs, and an unspecified amount of punitive damages to be set at trial.
The Fox filing came amid an unexpected delay in the trial’s start.
On Sunday evening, just over 12 hours before potential jurors were expected to report, Judge Eric Davis said he was delaying the start of trial to Tuesday at 9 a.m. ET.
“This is not a press conference, I don’t do that … what I’m telling you is I made the decision to delay the start of the trial until tomorrow,” he said from the bench Monday morning.
The judge did not give a reason for the delay, but said it was common for such proceedings.
For months, Dominion and Fox News have held firm against a settlement, but the delay fueled speculation that more serious talks could be underway.
Dominion declined to comment on whether settlement talks were underway. Fox News did not respond for requests to comment on the delay.
The delay follows a bruising week for Fox News.
During pretrial conference hearings, Davis sanctioned the company and its lawyers for withholding evidence, admonished them for not being straightforward with him and said he was considering appointing a special master to investigate possible legal misconduct by the attorneys. He said he would allow Dominion to conduct an additional deposition with Fox News Executive Chair Rupert Murdoch at Fox’s expense.
Davis also ruled that Fox lawyers could not use newsworthiness as a legal defense, limiting the possible trial strategies.
Fox News is also facing a $2.7 billion lawsuit from voting company Smartmatic in a New York court. Last week, they settled a smaller suit brought by a Venezuelan businessman who was identified as a key player in the bogus stolen election claims.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
