Fox News host Maria Bartiromo is the latest figure from the right-wing news network to provide an out-of-court testimony as part of the Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against the cable news titan.
A filing in the Superior Court in Delaware noted that the Fox News star would take questions on 8 September in reference to the network’s airing of false claims about the company in the fallout from the 2020 presidential election, according to a report inThe Los Angeles Times.
The revelation arrives after a flurry of other Fox News personalities have been called to provide depositions in the case or will do so in the coming days, including Tucker Carlson and Steve Doocy.
The maker of electronic voting software is suing Rupert Murdoch’s corporation and seeking $1.6 billion in damages for what it alleges was defamatory coverage during the weeks following former president Donald Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in the presidential election.
In the weeks following Mr Trump’s loss to the current president, the Sunday Morning Futures host ferried a revolving door of former Trump allies, including the president’s former personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, from the White House to a seat across from her. For weeks, the network platformed unproven and baseless theories that the election was stolen using Dominion’s voting machines.
In the lawsuit, the Denver-based company argues that Bartiromo continued to air these voter fraud claims even though “she had been specifically notified that independent fact-checkers, government officials and election security experts debunked those lies.”
A court filing from earlier in the summer showed that the company had contended that Murdoch had intentionally aired false conspiracies, putting profit above truth.
“[Murdoch] decided to promote former President Trump’s narrative after Trump’s condemnation of Fox damaged its stock and viewership.”
The cable news giant has so far publicly denied the basis of the lawsuit, arguing that it represents a challenge to the 1st Amendment.
“There are very few events in the last 50 years in this country that I think are more newsworthy than our president alleging that our entire Democratic system was put on its head by a voting machine company stealing votes,” said prominent trial lawyer Dan Webb, part of the network’s legal defence team, in a statement shared with The Washington Post last week.
Mr Webb, a former federal prosecutor who now specialises in white-collar crime, led the prosecution of John Poindexter in the Iran-Contra affair and, in 2018, was tapped by Mr Trump to represent him during the Russia probe. He was forced to decline that invitation after citing “business conflicts”.
For their part, Fox News has maintained that their news judgement was sound in airing the false theories around Dominion’s voting machines.
“We are confident we will prevail as freedom of the press is foundational to our democracy and must be protected,” Fox New said in a statement sent to The Independent by email.
“In addition to the damages claims being outrageous, unsupported and not rooted in sound financial analysis, serving as nothing more than a flagrant attempt to deter our journalists from doing their jobs.”
