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Toronto company hits Fox News with $1.6B defamation suit

The Fox News wall showing network personalities in New York City

Dominion Voting Systems is accusing Fox News of attempting to bolster ratings by falsely claiming the Toronto-based company rigged the 2020 U.S. election, causing Donald Trump to lose the presidency.

In a 139-page defamation suit filed in Delaware Superior Court, the election technology company accuses the media outlet of knowingly spreading lies – including that Dominion took government kickbacks and had connections to Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez – in order to lure back viewers upset that Fox News was the first outlet to call Arizona in favour of Joe Biden.

Dominion is seeking $1.6 billion USD in damages.

“With Fox’s global platform, an audience of hundreds of millions, and the inevitable and extensive republication and dissemination of the falsehoods through social media, these lies deeply damaged Dominion’s once-thriving business,” the complaint states.

“While Dominion was known within the voting machine industry and supplied machines in 28 states, it was little known to the public at large.”

The story that Dominion manipulated its voting machines to help Biden win the presidency was repeated on-air on Fox News by Trump’s lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.

Dominion filed suit against Giuliani and Powell in January, and then hit MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a Trump supporter, with a defamation suit seeking $1.3 billion damages a month later.

The complaint goes on to state that Dominion’s employees, including founder John Poulos, have been harassed and received death threats in the months following the November 3 election.

In a statement sent to media outlets, Fox said it stands by its coverage and plans to fight the suit in court.

“Fox News Media 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 company said.

In recent months, federal and state judges have thrown out over 50 Trump lawsuits challenging the election results. The U.S. Supreme Court has also rejected two lawsuits related to the election results. Election officials have said there is no evidence of voting systems losing or deleting votes.

In the wake of his election loss, Trump raised $207.5 USD million in donations between November 3 and 23, according to FEC filings. The former president’s campaign sent out hundreds of fundraising emails, as well as text messages, imploring supporters to help him overturn the election results.

The money is going into Trump’s new political action committee Save America to fund future rallies, travel, polling and political consultants.

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