Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch is set to be deposed in a lawsuit accusing Fox News of defamation, The Washington Post reports.
Dominion Voting Systems, which came under attack by former President Donald Trump and his allies in their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the company for amplifying the false claims.
Murdoch, 91, is set to be deposed next week.
The deposition is expected to be conducted remotely, according to a court filing.
Murdoch’s eldest son Lachlan, the CEO of Fox Corp., sat for an in-person deposition in Los Angeles on Monday.
Depositions pile up:
Murdoch is the highest-profile person deposed in the case. Dominion previously deposed a number of hosts, producers and executives about whether they knew claims made on the network were false.
Many of the comments were made by Trump’s attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, though the claims were echoed by Fox hosts like Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo, and Lou Dobbs, who was let go.
Dominion has deposed Pirro, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and other on-air talent, as well as Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott and Fox News President Jay Wallace.
Fox News pushes back:
Fox lawyers have argued that the lawsuit infringes on press freedom and the money demanded in the suit is “outrageous.”
“There are very few events in the last 50 years in this country that I think are more newsworthy than our president alleging that our entire Democratic system was put on its head by a voting machine company stealing votes,” Fox lawyer Dan Webb told The Post.
“Instead of acting responsibly and showing remorse, Fox instead has doubled down,” a spokeswoman for Dominion said in a statement Monday. “We’re focused on holding Fox accountable and are confident the truth will ultimately prevail.”
