As Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News continues, a judge ruled on Thursday that the network committed “discovery misconduct” by not turning over recorded conversations with Rudy Giuliani. But, on Thursday night, Jimmy Kimmel argued that Fox may simply not have known “which embarrassing” tape they were being asked for.
As Kimmel explained, one of the audio recordings that came to light in a pre-trial hearing this week involved a Trump campaign official admitting that when the Secretary of State of Georgia audited Dominion voting machines, the findings came “pretty darn close” to the machines’ count, and that “there weren’t any physical issues” with them.
In another recording, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, purportedly told Fox host Maria Bartiromo that he and his team had no evidence of voter fraud. According to Kimmel, the judge “was furious because Fox withheld the tapes,” but the host offered the network some grace.
“To be fair to Fox, they might not have known which embarrassing Rudy Giuliani tape they were being asked for,” Kimmel joked. “The one where the oil was leaking from his head? Or the one where he’s farting in court? The one where he unbuttons his pants for Borat’s daughter? Or could’ve been the one where he held a press conference outside a dildo shop. How are they supposed to keep track of them all?”
In a statement, a Fox News spokesperson said the company “produced the supplemental information from Ms. Grossberg when we first learned it.”
“Dominion’s lawsuit is a political crusade in search of a financial windfall, but the real cost would be cherished first amendment rights,” Fox said in a separate statement. “While Dominion has pushed irrelevant and misleading information to generate headlines, FOX News remains steadfast in protecting the rights of a free press, given a verdict for Dominion and its private equity owners would have grave consequences for the entire journalism profession.”
You can watch Kimmel’s full monologue in the video above.
