The false claims from Fox News and Trump allies cited in Dominion’s $1.6 billion lawsuit

The false claims from Fox News and Trump allies cited in Dominion’s $1.6 billion lawsuit

By 

JM Rieger

March 27, 2021 at 6:19 a.m. GMT+9

Dominion Voting Systems filed its fourth election-related defamation lawsuit on Friday, this time against Fox News for $1.6 billion, alleging that the network knowingly aired false claims about Dominion.

The repeated false claims by Fox hosts and guests cited in the Dominion lawsuit in some ways mirrors the false claims cited in Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox last month. Fox has filed four motions to dismiss the Smartmatic lawsuit.

In its suit against Fox, Dominion alleges that it repeatedly notified the network that it had aired falsehoods and also sent retraction requests to Fox.

As my colleague Aaron Blake noted last month, the question in each of these suits is how legally problematic the claims were and whether they meet the defamation standard.

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Fox defended itself, saying it "is proud of our 2020 election coverage, which stands in the highest tradition of American journalism, and will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit in court.”

The Fix has compiled many of the false claims cited by Dominion in the video above and has listed some of the most consequential claims below:

Lou Dobbs, Fox Business Network

“It’s stunning. And they’re private firms, and very little is known about their ownership, beyond what you’re saying about Dominion. It’s very difficult to get a handle on just who owns what and how they’re being operated. And by the way, the states, as you well know now, they have no ability to audit meaningfully the votes that are cast because the servers are somewhere else and are considered proprietary, and they won’t touch them. They won’t permit them being touched.” (Nov. 12, Fox Business Network)

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“I think many Americans have given no thought to electoral fraud that would be perpetrated through electronic voting; that is, these machines, these electronic voting companies, including Dominion, prominently Dominion, at least in the suspicions of a lot of Americans.” (Nov. 24, Fox Business Network)

“We’re going to examine in some detail the — the reasons for what is apparently a broadly coordinated effort to — to actually bring down this president by ending his second term before it could begin.” (Dec. 10, Fox Business Network)

“This president is looking at the prospect of having this election stolen from him. Do you think that’s a fair statement?” (Jan. 4, Fox Business Network)

Maria Bartiromo, Fox News

“There is much to understand about Smartmatic, which owns Dominion Voting Systems. They have businesses in Venezuela, Caracas, they have businesses in Cuba, and there are also links to China.” (Fox News, Nov. 15)

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“You said [Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell] that there may have been kickbacks to some people who accepted the Dominion software.” (Fox News, Nov. 15)

Jeanine Pirro, Fox News

“The Dominion software system has been tagged as one allegedly capable of flipping votes.” (Nov. 14, Fox News)

“The president’s lawyers alleging a company called Dominion, which they say started in Venezuela with Cuban money and with the assistance of Smartmatic software, a back door is capable of flipping votes.” (Nov. 21, Fox News)

Sidney Powell, former Trump campaign lawyer

“The computer glitches could not and should not have happened at all. That is where the fraud took place, where they were flipping votes in the computer system or adding votes that did not exist.” (Nov. 8, Fox News)

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“I can hardly wait to put forth all the evidence we have collected on Dominion, starting with the fact it was created to produce altered voting results in Venezuela for Hugo Chávez and then shipped internationally to manipulate votes for purchase in other countries, including this one.” (Nov. 13, Fox Business Network)

“[T]his is a massive election fraud, and I’m very concerned it involved not only Dominion and its Smartmatic software, but that the software essentially was used by other election machines also.” (Nov. 15, Fox News)

“[W]e need, frankly, to stop the election that’s supposed to happen in January because all the machines are infected with the software code that allows Dominion to shave votes for one candidate and give them to another …” (Nov. 30, Fox Business Network)

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“[T]he entire system was created for the benefit of Venezuela and Hugo Chávez to rig elections to make sure he continued winning. And then it was passed on to Mr. Maduro to do the same. And we know it was exported to other countries by virtue of some of the Dominion executives that proceeded to go about and essentially sell elections to the highest bidder.” (Dec. 10, Fox Business Network)

Rudolph W. Giuliani, former president Donald Trump’s personal lawyer

“Dominion sends everything to Smartmatic. Can you believe it? Can you believe it? Our votes are sent overseas. They are sent to someplace else, some other country. Why do they leave our country?” (Nov. 15, Fox News)

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“We have a machine, the Dominion machine … [that] was developed to steal elections, and being used in the states that are involved.” (Dec. 12, Fox News)

Tucker Carlson, Fox News

LINDELL: I’ve been all in trying to find the machine fraud and I — we found it. We have all the evidence. … I have the evidence. … I dare Dominion to sue me because then it will get out faster. So this is — it — you know, they don’t — they don’t want to talk about it.

CARLSON: No they don’t.

Mike Lindell, MyPillow CEO

“Dominion … said they were going to go after Mike Lindell. Well they did. They hired hit groups, bots, and trolls went after all my vendors, all these box stores to cancel me out. … I’m not backing down. We cannot back down out of fear this time.” (Jan. 26, Fox News)