Judge rules Fox News can face trial over 2020 election false claims

A voter-machine company's defamation case against Fox News over its airing false allegations about the 2020 presidential election will go to trial after a Delaware judge ruled that a jury must decide whether the network aired the claims with actual malice, the standard for proving libel against public figures.

Superior Court Judge Eric Davis ruled that neither Fox nor Dominion Voting Systems presented a convincing argument to prevail on whether Fox acted with malice without the case going to trial. He also ruled that the statements Dominion challenged were defamation per se under New York law. That means Dominion didn't have to prove damages to establish liability by Fox.

In his summary judgment, Davis wrote that the evidence developed in this civil proceeding shows that it is CRYSTAL clear that none of the statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true.

The trial starts in mid-April and the decision allows for the start of a trial in mid-April.

Dominion is suing the network for $1.6 billion, claiming Fox defamed it by repeatedly airing false allegations by then-President Donald Trump and his allies in the weeks after the 2020 election claiming the company's machines and its accompanying software had switched votes to Democrat Joe Biden. The claims were aired even though internal communications showed that many of its executives and hosts didn't believe them.

Don t miss: Top congressional Democrats Schumer and Jeffries seek on-air acknowledgements that Fox News personalities knew Trump lost and the election wasn t stolen.

According to evidence in Dominion case, the 2020 election was not stolen, Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch said under oath.

Tucker Carlson, a Fox News producer, told his fellow Fox News producer that he hates the former president with a passion: Pro-Trump on the air.

Fox said it was simply covering newsworthy allegations made by a sitting president who claimed his re-election had been stolen from him. Davis said that Fox could not escape potential liability by claiming privileges for neutral reporting or opinion.

FNN s failure to reveal extensive contradicting evidence from the public sphere and Dominion itself indicates that its reporting was not disinterested. The judge wrote.

In a statement issued after the ruling, Dominion said it was gratified that the court rejected Fox's arguments and found as a matter of law that their statements about Dominion are false. We look forward to going to trial. Fox said that the case is about the media's First Amendment protections in covering the news. Fox will continue to advocate for the rights of free speech and a free press as we move into the next phase of these proceedings, the network said in a statement.

Also : Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, among other potential witnesses to the Fox News trial.

The coverage was part of an ecosystem of misinformation surrounding Trump's loss in 2020 that has persisted ever since.