Today legal representatives for Dominion Voting Systems filed a defamation complaint in the Superior Court of Delaware in New Castle against the Fox News Network.
Today legal representatives for Dominion Voting Systems filed a defamation complaint in the Superior Court of Delaware in New Castle against the Fox News Network.
The court filing follows several retraction demands and formal written notice of the facts. Fox producers, content managers, and hosts were notified more than 30 times that their smears were not true. Dominion sent two retraction demand letters to Fox, on November 20 and again on December 22, 2020, detailing facts and evidence in the public domain demonstrating the falsity of Fox’s claims about Dominion. Fox continued to publish false and defamatory statements about Dominion.
“The disinformation campaign waged against our company has caused us severe damage and undermined trust in American democratic institutions. These lies also have threatened the personal safety of our employees and customers. No amount of money will repair the damage done.”
Dominion CEO John Poulos
Leading trial firm Susman Godfrey LLP will join the highly talented team of defamation attorneys at Clare Locke for this action against Fox. The Susman Godfrey team is led by partners Justin Nelson, Stephen Shackelford, and Davida Brook.
“As alleged in the complaint, despite claiming to be a news network, Fox actively propagated disinformation to purposely mislead viewers. It knowingly spread lies about Dominion Voting Systems repeatedly for months, all the while deliberately ignoring Dominion’s specific and repeated warnings that these smears were not true. Furthermore, multiple U.S. government agencies, third parties, and elected officials across 28 states have conclusively affirmed that no voting system deleted, lost, or changed votes in the 2020 election. However, if a viewer watched Fox, they would be none the wiser. The network endorsed, repeated, and broadcast a series of verifiably false, yet devastating, lies about Dominion. Fox’s viral disinformation campaign reached over a billion people worldwide and caused enormous harm to Dominion.”
Dominion legal counsel Tom Clare, Partner at Clare Locke LLP
“To serve its own commercial purposes, Fox News fanned the flames of conspiracy theories, taking a small flame and helping turn it into a raging fire. The news organization knowingly sold the false story of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election, with Dominion cast as the villain, severely injuring Dominion in the process. If this case does not rise to the level of defamation by a broadcaster, then nothing does.
Fox published the defamatory statements to make a profit at Dominion’s expense. Facing a threat to its most lucrative line of business from other conservative media outlets competing for the attention of President Trump and his supporters, Fox knowingly lied about Dominion in order to keep, increase, and win back viewers. While Fox’s strategy paid off big time, its victim was Dominion, not to mention the truth.
Dominion brings this lawsuit to set the record straight, to vindicate its rights, and to recover damages for the devastating economic harm done to its business. Dominion is entitled to punitive damages because Fox’s defamatory statements were accompanied by malice, wantonness, and a conscious desire to cause injury. Fox made the defamatory statements heedlessly and with a reckless and willful indifference to Dominion’s rights. This lawsuit is about accountability. The truth matters. Lies have consequences.”
Dominion legal counsel Stephen Shackelford, Partner at Susman Godfrey LLP
The filing can be found here.
