Recordings of conversations between Fox News employees and attorneys who tried to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election were improperly withheld as evidence in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation case, the Delaware judge overseeing the $1.6 billion lawsuit ruled Wednesday.
Judge Eric Davis ruled that Fox News lawyers had committed “discovery misconduct,” according to the Los Angeles Times, and it wasn’t his only rebuke of the defense: Davis also said during Wednesday’s pretrial conference that he was considering sanctions against network lawyers for not properly disclosing that Rupert Murdoch was has an executive chair role at Fox News.
The existence of the tapes came to light last week in a separate civil action filed against Fox News by Abby Grossberg, a former Maria Bartiromo producer. Grossberg is separately suing the network for discrimination and wrongful termination.
In that lawsuit, the plaintiffs presented taped conversations with Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell that were recorded before and after appearances on Bartiromo’s show in November 2020. In one of those conversations, Giuliani says he has little evidence to back up claims he had made on the program.
Fox said in a statement Wednesday that it “produced the supplemental information from Ms. Grossberg when we first learned it.”
Dominion is asking for $1.6 billion in damages for what it says are defamatory statements about its voting machines in multiple reports, guest segments and host commentary. Fox has maintained it was merely reporting the news, and has dug in its heels on what could be a landmark First Amendment case.
Trial is set to begin Monday.