Fox News could introduce evidence that “others” – including former president Donald Trump – “made similar claims” about Dominion Voting Systems for the purposes of “rebutting Dominion’s malice case” in a closely watched defamation trial against the right-wing network.
Fox also could present “evidence of ‘other defamers’ for purposes of contesting causation,” according a filing in Delaware Superior Court.
The latest filing comes as the judge presiding over the case addressed his decision to delay the start of a trial, which was scheduled to open on Monday, as speculation mounts that both parties could settle and avert a trial altogether.
On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post reported that Fox News and Dominion, which has accused the network of falsely airing that the company manipulated the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, were meeting to discuss a potential settlement.
In brief remarks from the bench inside Delaware Superior Court on Monday morning, Judge Eric Davis said he instructed jurors to report to court at the same time on Tuesday, but he did not elaborate on his decision for a one-day delay.
“This is not a press conference,” he said, addressing a courtroom that was mostly filled with a few dozen reporters.
“This is not unusual,” he added, nothing that the timing for the trial is already built in at six weeks. He said he has never had a trial longer than two weeks that has not had any delays.
Potential jurors will be brought in 12 at a time tomorrow morning “until we fill that number, and we’ll go from there,” he said.
Jurors have been instructed not to research the case.
Judge Davis also had a brief conversation with an attorney for Dominion and an attorney for Fox before recessing the trial until Tuesday morning.
A spokesperson for Dominion told The Independent that a trial remains on the schedule.
Attorneys for Fox were set to defend the network against Dominion’s argument that false statements about the company in the wake of the 2020 election – claims that were amplified by the former president and his allies – were defamatory and cost Dominion significant business and reputational harm.
Defamation cases rarely go to trial, but it will be up to a jury to determine whether the claims that were aired on Fox News meet the high bar for the “actual malice” standard – knowingly presenting false claims with reckless disregard for the truth.
On his Truth Social on Monday morning, the former president falsely claimed Dominion’s lawsuit would be “weakened” if the network stands by his baseless narrative that the 2020 election was rigged against him.
In his 80-page decision allowing the case to go to trial, Judge Davis wrote that “the evidence developed in this civil proceeding demonstrates that [it] is CRYSTAL clear” – emphasis his – “that none of the Statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true.”
