By Marshall Cohen and Oliver Darcy | CNN
Dominion Voting Systems‘ historic defamation case against Fox News will proceed to a high-stakes jury trial next month, a Delaware judge ruled Friday, declining to declare a pretrial winner.
Both sides had asked Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis for a pretrial ruling in their favor, declaring them the winner at this stage, and averting a trial. But after thousands of pages of filings and exhibits, and a series of courtroom clashes in Wilmington, Davis decided that the case should go to trial.
But In his Friday ruling, Davis said that the evidence Dominion presented shows Fox News aired falsehoods about the company.
“The evidence developed in this civil proceeding demonstrates that is CRYSTAL clear that none of the Statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true,” Davis wrote.
“We are gratified by the Court’s thorough ruling soundly rejecting all of Fox’s arguments and defenses, and finding as a matter of law that their statements about Dominion are false. We look forward to going to trial,” a Dominion spokesperson said in a statement.
“This case is and always has been about the First Amendment protections of the media’s absolute right to cover the news. FOX will continue to fiercely advocate for the rights of free speech and a free press as we move into the next phase of these proceedings,” a Fox spokesperson said in a statement.
Jury selection is scheduled for April 13.
It was always unlikely that either side would prevail at this stage of the proceedings.
Unless there is an out-of-court settlement — which is always possible — Davis’ ruling means jurors will have to decide whether Fox News defamed Dominion by repeatedly promoting false claims that the voting technology company rigged the 2020 presidential election against Donald Trump.
Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corporation, deny all wrongdoing and have argued that their conspiracy theory-filled broadcasts…
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