Rupert Murdoch noted that the Fox News hosts “went too far” with allegations of election fraud

More revelations from Fox Corporation. President Rupert Murdoch’s testimony, along with evidence gathered from Fox executives and TV hosts in the months following the 2020 election, emerged Tuesday as part of a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems.

Hundreds of pages of evidence gathered from both sides — including full excerpts of testimony from testimonials, text messages and emails — were made public Tuesday, providing glimpses of the back and forth on right-wing television in the months following the 2020 election.

“Maybe Shawn [Hannity] And Laura [Ingraham] He went away. It’s very good that Sean tells you he feels hopeless about Trump but what did he say to his viewers? Hannity and Laura Ingraham, the exchange came 15 days after the Capitol uprising on January 6, 2021.

According to the filings, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has continued to make false claims about the 2020 election, dismembered then-President Donald Trump in January 2021 in text messages. “I hate him so much,” Carlson wrote. “There is really no upside to Trump.”

A Delaware judge ordered the documents opened. While portions of affidavits and evidence have been released in recent weeks, Tuesday’s filings are the biggest revelations regarding private communications at Fox Corp. and Fox News.

Dominion argued in its lawsuit that Fox and its cable and talent channels falsely alleged that their voting machines rigged the results of the 2020 election.

Fox News said Tuesday that documents it provided showed “Dominion was caught red-handed using further distortion and disinformation in a public relations campaign to smear Fox News and trample on freedom of speech and freedom of the press. We already know they will say and do anything to try.” To win this case, but misrepresenting and even misrepresenting prices at the highest levels of our company is really too far.”

The company refers to Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch’s testimony about “staying up at night” regarding ratings and competition after the 2020 election. Dominion said and referred to texting between the talent regarding concerns about the audience following Fox’s election night call to Arizona for Joe Biden. Lachlan Murdoch said the overall rating was something that kept him up at night.

“You know, you get a few gray hairs from waking up in — sports ratings or news or entertainment ratings are probably the worst,” Lachlan Murdoch said, according to court papers.

A Dominion spokesperson said Thursday: “The emails, transcripts and deposit certificates speak for themselves. We welcome all scrutiny of our evidence because it all leads to the same place – Fox knowingly spreading lies that cause serious harm to an American company.”

Trump has repeatedly posted false claims that the 2020 election between him and incumbent President Joe Biden was rigged. He tried to pressure a senior Georgia official to “find” votes for him and became the subject of a criminal investigation in the state that Trump lost to Joe Biden.

In a conversation between host Maria Bartiromo and Trump’s former senior adviser Steve Bannon, Bartiromo said she was “very depressed.”

“I want to see huge frauds exposed. Will he be able to turn this around. I told my team we are not allowed to say [president] Vote for him [all]. Not in texts or banners on air. “Until this gets through the courts,” Bartiromo said in a text message exchange, to which Bannon responded, “Biden will never accept 71 million voters. This process is to destroy the presidency before it begins; if it even begins.”

Fox News has consistently denied that it knowingly made false claims about the election. It claimed Dominion was “picking up” citations from testimonies and documents collected through discovery.

Fox Corporation. He also said in court papers that the last year of the discovery showed that the media company “played no role in the creation and publication of the contested statements — all of which were broadcast on Fox Business Network or the Fox News Channel.”

Also Tuesday, attorneys for Dominion and Fox met before a Delaware judge to discuss the next steps leading up to a trial scheduled to begin in mid-April. Prior to that, Dominion and Fox will meet again in a Delaware courthouse on March 21 regarding their motions for summary judgment.

The exhibits filed in a Delaware court on Tuesday follow weeks of court filings revealing portions of evidence collected and depositions by Murdoch, another subsidiary of Fox Corp. Coppery, as well as the best talent.

In the affidavits, some of which were released last week, Murdoch acknowledged that some of Fox’s top anchors had made false allegations in the months following the 2020 presidential election, and that some had corroborated the allegations.

“Some of our commentators were in favor of that,” Murdoch said in his response during the briefing. “support”.

Court papers also show that Murdoch and his son, Fox Corp. CEO, Lachlan Murdoch, was close to Fox News CEO Susan Scott during that time regarding coverage on the network. Deposits and evidence such as text messages show that personalities such as Carlson, Hannity, and Ingraham expressed disbelief at claims made on air.

The case is being watched closely by First Amendment observers. Defamation lawsuits typically focus on a single falsehood, but in this case, Dominion cites a long list of examples of Fox cable channels and their hosts making false claims even after they have been proven untrue. Media companies are often broadly protected by the First Amendment.

The lawsuit also provided a window into what happens behind the scenes at Fox News, as well as other events related to allegations of 2020 election fraud that were covered on the Fox networks.

For example, court filings show that Fox Corp. Executives vetoed Trump’s bid to go live on the network on the evening of January 3. 6, 2021, after a violent mob of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol in an effort to stop Congress from confirming Biden’s victory.

That evening, Fox host Tucker Carlson sent a text message to his producer, calling Trump a “devil force.”

Court papers also show that Murdoch also said it was “wrong” for Carlson to host MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a Trump ally who has promoted election-related conspiracy theories, weeks after Jan. 4. 6.

Carlson, along with top anchors including Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, expressed their disbelief at what Sidney Powell, a pro-Trump lawyer who has aggressively promoted allegations of election fraud, said at the time, too.

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, criticized Fox News host Tucker Carlson for his January 2 broadcast. 6 footage on Monday in a way that portrayed it as a peaceful visit to the US Capitol. Schumer also criticized House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, D-Calif., for giving Carlson and Fox News exclusive access to 44,000 hours of Capitol security footage.

Meanwhile, Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies, D-N.Y., last week sent a letter to the Murdoch and Fox News leadership, calling on them to “stop spreading false election narratives and admit on air that they are wrong to engage in such election behavior.” neglected “. The letter was revealed in the days that followed, revealing more information in the case.