(NewsNation) — Some of the biggest names in cable news are expected to testify at an upcoming trial that could alter the American media landscape moving forward.
Colorado-based Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox News for $1.6 billion after it says the network knowingly aired false information about the company following the 2020 election.
Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Maria Bartiromo are all expected to take the stand to explain their role in the network’s coverage.
Even Rupert Murdoch, the company’s 92-year-old founder, could testify about internal conversations he had as the company weighed its editorial stance after former President Donald Trump and his allies falsely claimed the election was stolen.
In order to win the case, Dominion will have to prove Fox acted with “actual malice,” which means the network knowingly spread false information or recklessly disregarded the truth.
Here’s what testimony from the network’s stars could focus on, according to court documents.
Tucker Carlson
Text messages revealed in court filings show the network’s most popular host was privately concerned about the company’s performance after some colleagues pushed back against former President Donald Trump’s claim that the election was rigged against him.
Shortly after the 2020 election, a Fox reporter fact-checked a Trump tweet with false information about Dominion, which Carlson sent to Sean Hannity and said, “Please get her fired… It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down,” according to court filings.
Those financial fears drove Fox to platform Trump allies who continued to spread lies about the election, Dominion alleges. Private messages between Carlson and others show Fox’s top talent doubted many of the claims that were made on the network.
On Nov. 19, 2020, Carlson texted Laura Ingraham and said, “Sydney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane,” in reference to the Trump-aligned lawyer who spread false claims about the election being stolen.
Ingraham responded: “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy,” referring to the former New York mayor and Trump supporter Rudy Giuliani.
Rupert Murdoch
The media mogul is expected to testify about his role at Fox in the wake of the 2020 election despite the best efforts of the company’s lawyers who have tried to keep members of the Murdoch family from taking the stand.
Dominion will try to show that the company’s ratings distress, and subsequent editorial decisions, involved some of the most influential people at the company, including Murdoch.
In a Nov. 8, 2020 email to Suzanne Scott, the CEO of Fox News, Murdoch expressed concerns that Fox was “getting creamed by CNN,” per court documents.
The next day, Scott emailed Murdoch and emphasized the importance of keeping “the audience that loves and trusts us… we need to make sure we’re not abandoning them and still champions for them.” To which Murdoch responded, “Thanks. All very true. Lots of sane Fox viewers still believe in Trump.”
The following week Murdoch emailed Scott again: “Trump will concede eventually and we should concentrate on Georgia, helping any way we can. We don’t want to antagonize Trump further, but Giuliani taken with a large grain of salt. Everything at stake here.”
Since Dominion filed the lawsuit in 2021, attorneys for Fox Corp. had asserted that Murdoch had no official role at Fox News, but earlier this month the company revealed Murdoch is an “executive chair” at the network. Superior Court Judge Eric Davis has ruled Dominion can call Murdoch as a live witness.
In sworn questioning in January by lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems, Murdoch said that he believes the 2020 presidential election was free, fair and not stolen.
Sean Hannity
Dominion contends that Fox News Host Sean Hannity invited pro-Trump attorney Sydney Powell on air despite never believing her claims about mass voter fraud.
“I did not believe it for one second, and I tried to listen as time went on… I waited for proof,” Hannity said in a sworn deposition according to court filings.
On Nov. 30, 2020, Powell appeared on Hannity’s program where she falsely alleged that voting machines “ran an algorithm that shaved votes from Trump and awarded them to Biden.”
She said the machines were used to “trash large batches of votes that should have been awarded to President Trump. And they used a machine to inject and add massive quantities of votes for Mr. Biden,” according to an excerpt from Dominion.
Fox News has maintained the network was reporting on newsworthy allegations that are protected by the First Amendment.
Maria Bartiromo
Two days after the 2020 election, the host of Sunday Morning Futures posted false allegations of “vote dumps” in Biden’s favor on social media.
In subsequent weeks, Bartiromo interviewed Powell and Giuliani on multiple occasions where both spread lies about Dominion voting machines and their role in the election outcome.
In a Nov. 8, interview with Powell, Bartiromo said: “Sidney, we talked about the Dominion software. I know that there were voting irregularities.”
Powell said “computer glitches” were “flipping votes in the computer system or adding votes that did not exist” so Biden would win the election.
By Nov. 12, Dominion said it had sent “Setting The Record Straight” emails to Bartiromo debunking the claims.
On Nov. 15, Bartiromo interviewed Giuliani who falsely asserted that Dominion had corporate ties to Venezuela and that its technology had been used to cheat elections in South America.
On Nov. 20, 2020, a Fox News executive was informed by the company’s research department that Bartiromo’s reporting on election fraud was unreliable. A month later, Bartiromo was told she could no longer book Powell or Giuliani, per court filings.
Others who could testify
Former Fox host Lou Dobbs is also expected to testify after airing Giuliani and Powell’s false claims on his program. Dobbs also pushed their allegations on his own Twitter account.
“Read all about Dominion and Smartmatic voting companies and you’ll soon understand how pervasive this Democratic electoral fraud is,” he tweeted on Nov. 14.
Following a separate legal demand, Dobbs aired a segment in December 2020 that refuted many of the same conspiratorial claims he repeatedly elevated.
Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch’s son and the executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corp., may also be called to testify. Messages revealed in court documents show the younger Murdoch was in communication with Fox leaders about the company’s editorial decisions following the 2020 election.
Others, like hosts Jeanine Pirro and Laura Ingraham, could also be called to the stand.