Fox News agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle a voting machine maker’s defamation lawsuit over the network’s 2020 election broadcasts, striking a deal on the brink of a potentially embarrassing six-week trial.
The settlement — for almost half the $1.6 billion Dominion Voting Systems Inc. sought and far above some analysts’ estimates — came to light on Tuesday in a Wilmington, Delaware, courtroom. After more than two years of legal skirmishing over whether the network defamed Dominion by airing bogus claims that it rigged the vote against Donald Trump, and with a jury of 12 selected, the trial was about to get underway.
Instead, following an unexplained one-day delay Monday, it was held up for hours more in the sweaty final moments of the deal-making. At that point, Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch was soon to take the witness stand to be grilled over evidence that Fox knew the claims were unfounded.
