(NewsNation) — The judge presiding over the $1.6 billion defamation case against Fox News said Wednesday he will likely order an independent review to determine whether the network improperly withheld evidence in the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit.

“I cannot think of a worse way to start a trial,” said NewsNation legal contributor Jesse Weber. “Now, they’re being accused of withholding information discovery violations; every judge hates it. Every judge thinks it’s serious.”

The judge expressed anger and frustration during a pretrial hearing after learning that Fox only recently turned over recordings of host Maria Bartiromo talking with two former lawyers for then-President Donald Trump, Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani.

“The heart of this case is, did FoxNews withhold the truth from their viewers in the name of building an audience? And candidly, the judge is fed up,” said NewsNation media contributor Colby Hall.

The trial is scheduled to start Thursday with jury selection. Dominion alleges that Fox damaged the company by repeatedly airing false allegations that its machines and the software they used rigged the 2020 presidential election to prevent former President Donald Trump’s re-election.

Hall believes that the cozy relationship between Fox News personalities and Trump was a “symbiotic relationship.”

“They need each other’s audience,” said Hall. “Trump needs the viewers (of Fox News host Tucker Carlson). And Tucker needs the Trump base. And then that really was at the heart of what Fox News was doing. They were so afraid of losing their audience, that they hid the truth.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.