Dominion files $1.6B suit against Fox News over election fraud claims

Dominion Voting Systems has filed a $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News over claims made about the company during its coverage of the 2020 presidential election.

According to the lawsuit, Dominion claims that Fox News pushed “baseless conspiracy theories” that the election was stolen from former President Trump in an effort to boost its ratings.

Dominion alleges that Fox News “sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process.”

The suit is the latest in a string of lawsuits filed over the election claims but the first that Dominion has filed against Fox News.

Former President Trump’s claims that the 2020 presidential election was riddled with fraud have been repeatedly debunked, even by his own attorney general, William Barr. Still, the former president and his allies continued to push theories that the election was stolen, many of which Dominion says were echoed by Fox News.

Among the claims pushed by some on the network was one that Dominion changed votes through voting machines that were created by Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez. This claim was notably pushed by pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell, who moved on Monday to dismiss a $1.3 billion lawsuit brought against her by Dominion.

The suit says that Fox News pushed the false claims to try to explain “why President Trump lost in so many states.”

Dominion says in the suit that it repeatedly tried to set the record straight but was ignored.

Fox News Media told The Hill in a statement that it is “proud of our 2020 election coverage, which stands in the highest tradition of American journalism, and will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit in court.”

The Hill has reached out to Dominion for comment.

Dominion previously sued former Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who led Trump’s legal effort to overturn the election in a handful of swing states, for $1.3 billion in late January in damages over the claim.

The company later filed a separate $1.3 billion suit against MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who also made unproven claims about the election.

Rival voting technology company Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News, Giuliani and Powell in February over claims they made about the company.

Fox News moved to dismiss that suit in early February. 

Updated at 9:25 a.m.