Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems on Tuesday reached a $787.5 million settlement agreement, the parties announced, narrowly heading off a trial in the voting company’s defamation lawsuit shortly after the jury was sworn in, NBC News reported.
“Fox has admitted to telling lies,” John Poulos, Dominion CEO, said in a press conference after the trial was ended.
"Money is accountability," said Stephen Shackelford, Jr., the attorney scheduled to give opening statements for Dominion on Tuesday.
Fox News also put out a statement.
“We acknowledge the court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. This settlement reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards,” it said, according to NBC News. “We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues.”
Dominion filed the lawsuit in March of 2021, suing the network for $1.6 billion and claiming Fox defamed it by repeatedly airing false claims about the company’s machines and its accompanying software during the 2020 election.
Fox argued that the amount greatly overstated the value of the Colorado-based company.
The settlement was announced by the judge in the case, who allowed the case to go to trial while emphasizing that it was “CRYSTAL clear” that none of the allegations about Dominion aired on Fox by allies of former President Donald Trump were true.
Court records and testimony revealed that many Fox hosts and executives didn’t believe the claims but continued to air them regardless.
Dominion accused Fox of libel for repeatedly airing, in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election, false allegations by Trump allies that its machines and the software they used had switched votes to Biden — even though many at the network doubted the claims and disparaged those making them.
The company sued both Fox News and its parent, Fox Corp.
In a March 31 ruling, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric M. Davis pointedly called out the news organization for airing falsehoods while noting how the bogus election claims persist.