Investigating The Fox News Defamation Case for 2020 Election Fraud Reporting: Rupert Murdoch is too ill-equipped to testify in person

Among the network personnel that the voting technology company wants to call as witnesses are Fox News chief executive Suzanne Scott; Fox News President Jay Wallace; hosts Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Maria Bartiromo, Laura Ingraham, and Bret Baier; and former executive Bill Sammon and politics editor Chris Stirewalt.

Dominion’s potential witness list, which is not final and will surely face legal challenges from Fox’s lawyers, is part of the routine process of haggling over witnesses while both sides prepare for trial.

Davis has yet to make a decision on which witnesses he might compel to take the stand, but at a hearing Tuesday, he scoffed at some of the excuses Rupert Murdoch might use to avoid in-person testimony.

The judge was asked to declare Fox News the winner without a trial. The judge has yet to make a decision on the matter, but most legal experts believe the case will go to trial if the two sides don’t reach a settlement. Jury selection is scheduled to begin on April 13.

“I also have people telling me that he’s done some things recently that [show] he’s hardly infirm,” Davis said, noting that Murdoch had recently announced his engagement to be married for the fifth time and plans to travel between his homes in Los Angeles, Montana, New York and London.

The Delaware judge overseeing a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News on Tuesday did not seem to buy the argument that founder Rupert Murdoch was too infirm to testify at trial next month.

It foretold a key contention in the defamation case against Fox News, that were top executives responsible for the broadcasting of baseless election fraud claims in late 2020?

An attorney for Fox said that they had included 1,000 exhibits that the other side did not. Fox attorneys objected to everything because they wouldn’t waive their right to object in the future.

Dominion vs Fox News: How Russian Voters Can Flip the Voter Biden from Trump to Biden? The Case Against Murdoch’s Deposition

Both sides are hoping to get testimony from their own experts who specialize in election statistics, the security of voting machines, journalism ethics, and more.

Dominion said in court filings that its experts will describe how it would’ve been literally “impossible” for its software to flip millions of votes from Trump to Biden, which is precisely what many Fox hosts and guests suggested it did in 2020.

The remarks came at the outset of a pre-trial hearing when Judge Eric M. Davis noted that he previously had received a letter stating that the 92-year-old Murdoch “couldn’t travel” to the trial in Delaware because of COVID.

Attorneys for Fox argue that the network aired claims made by the sitting president and his representatives in the wake of a heated election to counteract the lawsuit’s allegations.

Fox’s attorneys fight back against the idea that Fox News’ executives and board members could be held responsible.

The case, which was filed last year, has so far uncovered thousands of documents that attorneys intend to use as trial exhibits and has prompted scores of depositions.

Murdoch’s deposition was brought up by Matthew Carter when he was responding to Davis.

Carter said there had been a miscommunication. He said his side hadn’t argued that Murdoch was infirm, but that there was no reason for his trial testimony given that the Murdoch had already submitted to seven hours of questioning in the deposition.

He also acknowledged he had the power to dissuade Fox News’ executives and stars from giving airtime to Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who peddled the lie.

Whether Davis could do the same thing to officials farther down the Fox line of command is still unclear.

The Attorney-General Summary of Tuesday Hearing on the Public Disclosure of Distilled Court Documents and Other Various Issues in the Eighth Circuit Circuit Circuit

The attorneys at the Tuesday hearing sparred over that question and others, such as topics that could be covered during testimony, the type of exhibits that could be shown, and even the number of days of advance notification a witness must be given before their testimony.

The topic of the public disclosure of court documents was the focus of the hearing. (Attorneys for NPR and other media organizations are challenging widespread redactions throughout the documents.)

The network’s fact-checking process was documented in court documents, and the attorney argued that they should not be public.

Further, he said his forthcoming opinion on separate motions from Dominion and from Fox to rule in their favor before trial would include mentions of the Brain Room.