Dominion Voting Systems is dropping claims of “lost profit damages” from its defamation case against Fox News, but maintains that its $1.6 billion claim stands, and that any change is just a matter of legal semantics.
For a completely different take on that, we head over to Fox News – which says the subtle change means Dominion has “finally admitted” that its initial damages claim was inflated, and that the shift amounts to a reduction in its ask by “more than half a billion dollars.”
But the Denver-based company on Monday told TheWrap that it is still seeking $1.6 billion for what it says are defamatory statements by the conservative cable network after the 2020 presidential election: “The damages claim remains,” Dominion told TheWrap. “As Fox well knows, our damages exceed $1.6B.”
Fox initially reported the adjustment in a Sunday court filing seeking clarity on an evidentiary matter, saying Dominion communicated that it had taken “more than a half a billion dollars” off its damages claim. The Fox filing said lawyers for Dominion told the network it was “walking away from lost-profit damages [valued at $600 million] and will pursue only ‘lost enterprise value’ damages.”
Dominion tells TheWrap that the “lost-profit” designation from its original filing was a redundancy, and that the amount is subsumed by the “lost enterprise value” claim.
Dominion had said Fox’s airing of guests and hosts claiming its machines were compromised has damaged its reputation and future business prospects, but also caused immediate financial harm. Fox has maintained that Dominion’s claims are overblown.
“Fox has made clear that Dominion’s damages are wildly inflated which Dominion has now finally admitted at the 11th hour,” Fox said in a Monday morning statement to TheWrap.
The Delaware trial was unexpectedly delayed until Tuesday, when both jury selection and opening statements were expected to begin.
