At a hearing on Tuesday, April 11, a judge in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News says the network has “a credibility problem.” The comments came less than a week before the lawsuit is set to head to trial.
The judge made comments after the network disclosed that Fox Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch is also the executive chairman at Fox News. Fox has previously argued the corporation and its top officials did not have daily operational roles at the network.
“I’m not very happy right now,” Judge Eric Davis said during a hearing in Wilmington, Delaware. “You [Fox News] have a credibility problem.”
Lawyers for Dominion argued the delayed disclosure prevented them from obtaining a wider set of documents from Murdoch during discovery.
A lawyer for Fox argued Murdoch disclosed his title in a February deposition. According to the lawyer, Murdoch described the role as “honorific.”
“Rupert Murdoch has been listed as executive chairman of Fox News in our SEC filings since 2019 and this filing was referenced by Dominion’s own attorney during his deposition,” Fox said in a company statement.
In another pre-trial update, Judge Davis also ruled that Dominion lawyers cannot reference Jan. 6 during the trial. Davis said references to Jan. 6 could taint the jury’s view of the case, and that the trial was not about whether or not Fox News influenced the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
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