After a legal settlement that cost Fox Fox $787.5 million this week, the mass media company continues to face heavy legal action from another company that is now demanding $2.7 billion in defamation charges.
On Tuesday, Dominion Voting Systems said it reached a settlement in its defamation lawsuit against Fox News, a subsidiary of Fox Corp. The network's erroneous reporting of a claimed plot to rig the 2020 election in favor of President Joe Biden.
Smartmatic is suing Fox for $2.7 billion in damages for similar defamation accusations relating to the aftermath of the 2020 election.
Dominion, which provided electronic voting hardware and software for the election, said its brand and business were heavily affected by Fox's false claims that put the company in the middle of the alleged conspiracy.
If the trial had gone ahead in Delaware, Fox could have been forced to pay $1.6 billion in damages in case of a loss, with the addition of months of bad publicity from one of the most closely followed defamation trials of the decade.
The next legal challenge from Fox News is that Smartmatic's lawsuit includes Fox anchors Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro, as well as lawyers Rudolph W. Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who appeared live on Fox News as they backed the case for a conspiracy theory claiming that Donald Trump was the victim of a rigged election.
It remains to be seen to what extent Giuliani and Powell's association with the network would warrant them a place in the same lawsuit, since neither of them are Fox employees and they were acting as commentators or interviewees.
Dominion's lawsuit exposed some of the misconduct and damage caused by Fox's disinformation campaign, according to Smartmatic attorney J. Erik Connolly.
Smartmatic will expose the rest, he said, adding the company he represents still remains committed to clearing its name, recouping the significant damage done to the company, and holding Fox accountable for undermining democracy. Smartmatic alleges that Fox broadcast over 100 false statements and implications about the former's involvement in an alleged conspiracy.
The lawsuit was filed in 2021 in the New York State Supreme Court, but the trial is long behind Dominion's. Earlier this year, a New York appeals court ruled out a motion by Fox to dismiss the suit.
Who owns fox? In January, Rupert Murdoch, whose family still controls 39% of Fox Corp., called off a proposed plan earlier this year to reunite the company with News Corp. Murdoch's family, which also owns a 42% stake in News Corp. NWSA.
The publishing company was inherited by News Corp, while Fox Corp was built to parent the broadcasting side of the business.
The Walt Disney Company DIS sold 21 st century Fox to The Walt Disney Company DIS in 2019, a major part of the company, including its movie studio business. The current Fox Corp. is the legal continuation of all assets not bought by Disney.