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Buckle Up, Dominion’s $1.6 Billion Lawsuit Against Fox News Is Going to Trial

A judge said Fox’s claims about the voting machine company were clearly false but the case will nevertheless go before a jury.

Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation suit against Fox News will go to jury trial next month in a crushing blow for the right-wing media titan. In a Friday ruling, the Delaware Superior Court judge presiding over the case wrote that it was “CRYSTAL clear” that Fox’s election-fraud statements about Dominion were false, but that it will be up to a jury to decide whether the company acted with “actual malice”—that is, knowing or simply not caring that they were lying—when it aired accusations about Dominion ranging from collusion with the Venezuelan government to vote-rigging. The judge also rejected Fox News’ argument that its on-air statements were “pure opinion,” making the company’s road to victory in a trial all the more difficult. Both sides had asked the judge to declare them the winner instead of heading to trial. In statements to CNN, a Dominion spokesperson said they were “gratified by the Court’s thorough ruling soundly rejecting all of Fox’s arguments and defenses” while a Fox spokesperson said they will “continue to fiercely advocate for the rights of free speech and a free press as we move into the next phase of these proceedings.”