Tucker Carlson
Tucker CarlsonReuters

Fox News hosts may have publicly cheered on former President Trump’s election fraud claims but revelations from a defamation lawsuit showed they behaved very differently in private.

Off camera, several Fox personalities displayed deep concerns about the claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election alleged by Trump and his inner circle, according to court filings in a $1.6 billion defamation suit by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News, the Associated Press reported.

Tucker Carlson allegedly told a producer on November 16, 2020 that Trump ally lawyer Sidney Powell was "lying” about having evidence proving election fraud, according to a redacted summary judgement brief filed on Thursday by Dominion Voting Systems lawyers.

He also called Powell an “unguided missile” who was “dangerous as hell.”

Fox host Laura Ingraham admitted to Carlson that she thought Powell was “a complete nut. No one will work with her.”

She added: “Ditto with Rudy,” in reference to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani who was then working as an attorney for Trump.

Host Sean Hannity had a similar opinion, stating in a deposition, according to Dominion, that “that whole narrative that Sidney was pushing, I did not believe it for one second.”

Dominion sells electronic voting machines and software. They Denver company is suing Fox News and parent company Fox Corporation, alleging that Fox staff knowingly promoted fraudulent facts, including that Dominion had switched votes in the 2020 election from Republican to Democrat. Dominion’s suit also alleged that Fox gave guests an outlet to air fake and defamatory statements about the company.

Fox attorneys wrote in a counterclaim that was unsealed on Thursday that the lawsuit violated their First Amendment rights, and slammed the “staggering” amount of money that Dominion was asking for in damages.

“Dominion brought this lawsuit to punish FNN [Fox News Network] for reporting on one of the biggest stories of the day – allegations by the sitting President of the United States and his surrogates that the 2020 election was affected by fraud,” the counterclaim said. “The very fact of those allegations was newsworthy.”

Lawyers for Fox also wrote in the document that the network had broadcast statements by Dominion denying the allegations brought forward by Trump and his spokespeople.

(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)