CNN — Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox Corporation, acknowledged in a deposition taken by Dominion Voting Systems that some Fox News hosts endorsed false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.Murdoch's remarks in a deposition were made public in a legal filing as part of Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News."Some of our commentators were endorsing it," Murdoch said, singling out Fox hosts Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro as Fox hosts who promoted the false stolen election claims on air, according to a transcript of his deposition. Murdoch acknowledged the hosts frequently invited guests who made similar claims.But Murdoch pushed back against Dominion's lawyers who claimed that Fox was endorsing "this false notion of a stolen election?""Not Fox. But maybe Lou Dobbs, maybe Maria, as commentators," Murdoch said in his deposition.In another filing made public earlier this month, a trove of messages and emails from the most prominent stars and highest-ranking executives at Fox News showed they had privately ridiculed claims of election fraud in the 2020 election, despite the right-wing channel promoting lies about the presidential contest on its air.The messages showed that Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham brutally mocked lies being pushed by former President Donald Trump's camp asserting that the election was rigged.The court filings have offered the most vivid picture to date of the chaos that transpired behind the scenes at Fox News after Trump lost the election and viewers rebelled against the right-wing channel for accurately calling the contest in Biden's favor.Fox News has not only vigorously denied Dominion's claims, it has insisted it is "proud" of its 2020 election coverage.The network argued that the court filing contained cherry-picked quotes lacking context."There will be a lot of noise and confusion generated by Dominion and their opportunistic private equity owners, but the core of this case remains about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution and protected by New York Times v. Sullivan," Fox News said in a statement.- This is breaking news and will be updated.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

RANDALL CHASE Associated Press DOVER, Del. — Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch acknowledged that some Fox News commentators endorsed the false allegations by former President Donald Trump and his allies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that he didn't step in to stop them from promoting the claims, according to excerpts of a deposition unsealed Monday.The claims and the company's handling of them are at the heart of a defamation lawsuit against the cable news giant by Dominion Voting Systems.The recently unsealed documents include excerpts from a deposition in which Murdoch was asked about whether he was aware that some of the network's commentators — Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro and Sean Hannity — at times endorsed the false election claims. Murdoch replied, "Yes. They endorsed."The Murdoch deposition is the latest filing in the defamation case to reveal concerns at the top-rated network over how it handled Trump's claims as its ratings plummeted after the network called Arizona for Joe Biden, angering Trump and his supporters. People are also reading… An earlier filing showed a gulf between the stolen election narrative the network was airing in primetime and doubts about the claims raised by its stars behind the scenes. In one text, from Nov. 16, 2020, Fox News host Tucker Carlson said "Sidney Powell is lying" about having evidence for election fraud, referring to one of Trump's lawyers.The Dominion case is the latest example showing that those who spread false information about the 2020 election knew there was no evidence to support it.The now-disbanded House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol disclosed that many of Trump's top advisers repeatedly warned him that the allegations he was making about fraud were false — and yet the president continued making the claims.Murdoch urged in September 2020, weeks before the election, that Dobbs be fired because he was "an extremist," according to Dominion's court filing. Murdoch also said he thought it was "really bad" for former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to be advising Trump because Giuliani's "judgment was bad" and he was "an extreme partisan," according to a deposition excerpt.Murdoch was asked whether he could have requested that Powell and Giuliani not be put on the air: "I could have. But I didn't," he replied.Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, which sells electronic voting hardware and software, sued both Fox News Network and parent company Fox Corp. for defamation. Dominion contends that some Fox News employees deliberately amplified false claims by supporters of Trump that Dominion machines had changed votes in the 2020 election, and that Fox provided a platform for guests to make false and defamatory statements about the company.Dominion attorneys contend that executives in the "chain of command" at both Fox News and Fox Corp. knew the network was broadcasting "known lies, had the power to stop it, but chose to let it continue. That was wrong, and for that, FC and FNN are both liable." 0 Comments #lee-rev-content { margin:0 -5px; } #lee-rev-content h3 { font-family: inherit!important; font-weight: 700!important; border-left: 8px solid var(--lee-blox-link-color); text-indent: 7px; font-size: 24px!important; line-height: 24px; } #lee-rev-content .rc-provider { font-family: inherit!important; } #lee-rev-content h4 { line-height: 24px!important; font-family: "serif-ds",Times,"Times New Roman",serif!important; margin-top: 10px!important; } @media (max-width: 991px) { #lee-rev-content h3 { font-size: 18px!important; line-height: 18px; } } #pu-email-form-breaking-email-article { clear: both; background-color: #fff; color: #222; background-position: bottom; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding: 15px 0 20px; margin-bottom: 40px; border-top: 4px solid rgba(0,0,0,.8); border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(0,0,0,.2); display: none; } #pu-email-form-breaking-email-article, #pu-email-form-breaking-email-article p { font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; } #pu-email-form-breaking-email-article h2 { font-size: 24px; margin: 15px 0 5px 0; font-family: "serif-ds", Times, "Times New Roman", serif; } #pu-email-form-breaking-email-article .lead { margin-bottom: 5px; } #pu-email-form-breaking-email-article .email-desc { font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 5px; opacity: 0.7; } #pu-email-form-breaking-email-article form { padding: 10px 30px 5px 30px; } #pu-email-form-breaking-email-article .disclaimer { opacity: 0.5; margin-bottom: 0; line-height: 100%; } #pu-email-form-breaking-email-article .disclaimer a { color: #222; text-decoration: underline; } #pu-email-form-breaking-email-article .email-hammer { border-bottom: 3px solid #222; opacity: .5; display: inline-block; padding: 0 10px 5px 10px; margin-bottom: -5px; font-size: 16px; } @media (max-width: 991px) { #pu-email-form-breaking-email-article form { padding: 10px 0 5px 0; } } Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!

News Corp. founder Rupert Murdoch. Drew Angerer-Pool/Getty Images Redeem now Dominion Voting Systems made new claims about Fox News' workings around the 2020 election. In its defamation suit against Fox, Dominion claimed that Rupert Murdoch shared confidential info. Jared Kushner was provided early access to Biden's 2020 election ads, per the filing. Top editors give you the stories you want — delivered right to your inbox each weekday. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. .inline-newsletter-signup.loading { width: 100%; max-width: 640px; margin: 0 auto; visibility: hidden; } A new filing in Dominion's mammoth defamation lawsuit against Fox News includes claims that network chief Rupert Murdoch gave former Trump advisor Jared Kushner confidential information about Joe Biden's strategic moves in the lead-up to the 2020 election.Dominion Voting Systems opposed Fox News' move to throw out the lawsuit in a new filing on Monday, in a high-stakes case set for an April trial. The voting company alleged through depositions, and internal texts and emails, that Murdoch provided Jared Kushner with advance knowledge of then-candidate Joe Biden's political ads and debate preparations."During Trump's campaign, Rupert provided Trump's son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, with Fox confidential information about Biden's ads, along with debate strategy (providing Kushner a preview of Biden's ads before they were public)," Dominion's lawyers wrote in the filing.Murdoch is also quoted from his depositions in the case, agreeing that he "seriously doubted" any claims of widespread election fraud pushed by the Trump camp. In response to Insider's request for comment, a Fox News spokesperson said, in part, that Dominion was "mischaracterizing the facts.""Dominion cherry-picks any soundbite it can find from any corner of the Fox organization even though it admits in its brief — 117 pages later — that most of that evidence is utterly irrelevant to the legal issues in this case. Dominion's focus on such irrelevant evidence demonstrates that it is more interested in headlines than law or fact." On March 26, 2021, Dominion filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News seeking $1.6 billion in damages, claiming that the network gave prominence to the election-fraud claims as a tactic to revive viewership as ratings dropped after President Donald Trump's loss.Dominion manufactures and sells electronic voting hardware, software, and voting machines, and was repeatedly targeted with conspiracies in the wake of the 2020 election. And in the company's lawsuit, Dominion claimed that Fox News "sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process."Two months later, Fox News filed to dismiss the motion, and by December 2021, a judge had rejected Fox's motion. .content-lock-lock .hidden { display: none; } Sign up for notifications from Insider! Stay up to date with what you want to know. Subscribe to push notifications Close icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.

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News Corp. Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch declined to rein in Fox News hosts who spread false claims of widespread voter fraud in the days after the 2020 election despite privately expressing that he had seen little evidence for then-President Donald Trump’s claims and that he found half of them “bulls--- and damaging,” according to court documents unsealed Monday.Fox News was “trying to straddle the line between spewing conspiracy theories on one hand, yet calling out the fact that they are actually false on the other,” Murdoch said in testimony released in the court documents.Murdoch acknowledged in testimony that some of those hosts, including Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo, had done more than just give a platform to baseless claims of voter fraud.“Yes,” Murdoch said, according to the documents. “They endorsed.”The filing adds to a growing collection of documents and testimony, some of it from many other top Fox News and Fox Corp. executives, that detail how the cable channel reacted in the hours, days and weeks after the 2020 election — and how those reactions opened the door for baseless claims of election fraud to become a consistent talking point. The testimony from executives highlights how Fox News' calling Arizona for Joe Biden late on election night sparked a viewer backlash that resonated among the company’s executives and high-profile hosts, sparking concerns about what it would mean for its business.Murdoch, asked why he continued to allow MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to make election fraud claims on Fox News, said it was a business decision. “It is not red or blue, it is green,” Murdoch said, according to the court documents.Murdoch testified in an ongoing lawsuit against Fox News filed by the voting machine maker Dominion Voting Systems. The new documents were unsealed less than two weeks after an unsealed court filing exposed the communications of many Fox News executives, hosts and producers who saw claims about Dominion to be without merit. They included host Tucker Carlson's saying Sidney Powell was “lying” about voter fraud docs, Rupert Murdoch's calling statements by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani “crazy stuff” and “damaging” and Hannity’s saying he “did not believe it for one second.”Murdoch also confirmed that he could have exerted some control over the network, most notably by telling Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to stop putting Giuliani on the air.“I could have,” Murdoch said in the court documents. “But I didn’t.” Feb. 19, 202301:27Dominion first sued Fox News in March 2021, seeking $1.6 billion for what it alleged were lies that “deeply damaged Dominion’s once-thriving business.” Fox News has defended its coverage and called the lawsuit “baseless.” On Monday, the company said in a statement: “Dominion’s lawsuit has always been more about what will generate headlines than what can withstand legal and factual scrutiny, as illustrated by them now being forced to slash their fanciful damages demand by more than half a billion dollars after their own expert debunked its implausible claims. Their summary judgment motion took an extreme, unsupported view of defamation law that would prevent journalists from basic reporting and their efforts to publicly smear FOX for covering and commenting on allegations by a sitting President of the United States should be recognized for what it is: a blatant violation of the First Amendment.”Dominion noted in the court documents that it tried to get Fox News shows hosted by Dobbs, Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro to book its spokesperson, Michael Steel, to counter election fraud claims but that its efforts were unsuccessful. A search of the Fox News website shows Steel did appear on at least one Fox News program: "America's News Headquarters." The documents also show other executives at Fox News growing increasingly concerned about the channel’s handling of election fraud claims in the days after the election.“Hannity is getting awfully close to the line with his commentary and guests tonight,” Viet Dinh, Fox Corp.’s chief legal and policy officer, told Fox News and Fox Corp. executives on Nov. 5, 2020.The filing also offered new insight into the relationship between Murdoch and Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, asserting that Murdoch provided Kushner with "Fox confidential information" about Joe Biden's ads, as well as debate strategy. However, Murdoch did not help him on election night.When Fox News determined that Biden had won Arizona, Murdoch testified, Kushner called him to protest.“My friend Jared Kushner called me saying, ‘This is terrible,’ and I could hear Trump’s voice in the background shouting," Murdoch testified, according to the filing. “And I said, ‘Well, the numbers are the numbers.’” Lawsuits like Dominion's rarely succeed, as the First Amendment broadly protects publishers. Plaintiffs must also prove “actual malice,” a term that means statements were made with knowledge that they were false or were made with reckless disregard of whether they were false or not.Jeff Kosseff, a law professor at the U.S. Naval Academy and former practicing First Amendment lawyer, said in an interview that Murdoch’s testimony suggests Dominion has “a really strong case.”“I can’t recall the last time that I’ve seen so much evidence of actual malice just piled on top of each other,” Kosseff said.“That’s not to say they definitely will win, but I’d much rather be in the plaintiff's lawyers' shoes,” he said.The filing shows that as various Fox News shows, hosts and guests continued to push voter fraud claims, Murdoch fielded messages from other media executives, some from within Fox Corp., who tried to persuade him to change course.Murdoch even spoke to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott on Jan. 5, 2021, the day before Trump supporters would storm the Capitol, about whether to push Hannity, Carlson and Laura Ingraham to say something to effect of "The election is over and Joe Biden won," according to the filing. According to the filing, Scott told Murdoch that “privately they [the hosts] are all there” but “we need to be careful about using the shows and pissing off the viewers.” No statement was made.

A lawsuit surrounding the 2020 presidential election was fast-tracked to the Supreme Court in January because of its impact on national security.  The case, Brunson v. Adams, was brought against 388 federal officers, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Mike Pence for failing to evaluate states’ warnings about illegal votes. The plaintiff, Raland J. Brunson of Utah, argues that these federal officials violated their oath to defend the Constitution by certifying the 2020 election without any investigation after receiving valid requests.  The question before the court is not whether the election was valid, but that by violating their oath to defend the Constitution and investigate possible interference, they invalidated themselves from holding public office.  SEE ALSO: SCOTUS considers lawsuit surrounding 2020 election that could oust Biden & Harris The Supreme Court initially rejected hearing the case after a meeting on Jan. 6. However, the plaintiff filed a petition for a rehearing, arguing that there must be a penalty for violating oaths of office or else they are "not binding."  In the 10-page petition, Brunson compares a rigged election to war, since both “put into power” a “victor.” He adds that “when members of Congress become aware of such allegations an investigation into these allegations is required or they become violators of their Oath of Office.” Last Tuesday the Supreme Court shot down the case for a second time. A vote tally of the nine justices was not made public and no explanation for the two rejections was provided.  “Moving on to plan C,” Brunson wrote on Facebook after the rejection announcement. “We understand this to be a possible long but worthy goal. The result is that everyone in this nation will have the peace of mind that comes from knowing that the candidate of their choice will be bound by their oath to protect the rights and freedom of the people they represent.” He added that more details on his next course of action will be shared in the coming days.  Join the movement seeking to restore the federal government to its original purpose. Sign the Convention of States petition below.