NEW YORK — Fox News stars including Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity have been deposed in recent weeks by a voting machine company’s lawyers as part of an ongoing suit.
Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox News last year for defamation, saying the network peddled election fraud conspiracies despite knowing they were false. Dominion wants a $1.6 billion payout.
Fox has said it’s “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 network tried to have the suit thrown out, but a judge rejected that effort in December.
Jeanine Pirro and Tucker Carlson were deposed last week by Dominion lawyers, the Washington Post reported. Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity were questioned this week. The depositions remain sealed.
Dominion argued in its lawsuit that Fox News saw its ratings slip after calling the 2020 presidential election for Joe Biden, prompting the network to pivot to election conspiracies despite knowing they were false.
“Fox sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process,” the company wrote in the suit.
Fox’s Maria Bartiromo is scheduled for a deposition next week, according to CNN. It’s possible that Fox boss Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan will also be brought in for questioning.
Dominion sued Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani for their appearances peddling election-rigging conspiracies on right-wing media networks. Another voting machine company, Smartmatic, has also sued Fox. Those cases are ongoing.
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