By Tom Hals
WILMINGTON, Delaware, April 11 (Reuters) – A judge said Fox News had a “credibility problem” as it prepares for a $1.6 billion defamation trial after the company disclosed for the first time in nearly two years of litigation that Rupert Murdoch was an officer of the company.
On Monday, Fox News and its parent company Fox Corp FOXA.O head to trial over Fox’s coverage of false election-rigging claims. Murdoch, chairman of Fox Corp, is expected to testify.
Dominion Voting Systems alleges Fox damaged its business by Fox knowingly and repeatedly airing false claims that Dominion machines were used to flip the 2020 U.S. presidential election against former President Donald Trump, a Republican, and in favor of Democrat Joe Biden, who won.
Fox News had disclaimed that Murdoch was a company officer, which shaped how Dominion litigated the case, according to Nelson. As a Fox News officer, Murdoch would likely have been subject to more probing discovery by Dominion.
“It is very troubling but this is where we are,” Dominion attorney Justin Nelson said, adding the Dominion only learned of Murdoch’s role on Sunday and got its first document with Murdoch’s title of Fox News executive chairman on Tuesday morning.
A Fox lawyer told the hearing in Wilmington, Delaware, that Murdoch disclosed the title in a February deposition and he called the title “honorific.”
A spokeswoman for Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Superior Court Judge Eric Davis called the delayed disclosure “bizarre” and chided Fox attorneys for having made representations that Murdoch wasn’t an officer of Fox News, only to reverse on the eve of trial. “I’m not very happy right now,” Davis said. “You have a credibility problem.”
Dominion says that depositions by Murdoch and others, as well as troves of internal Fox communications, prove top network personnel knew the election-rigging claims were false but aired them anyway to appease Fox’s conservative viewers.
Determining who knew what when and how much power they had over Fox coverage is likely to be a critical task for jurors, who will start being selected Thursday ahead of opening statements on Monday.
Dominion’s Nelson said at Tuesday’s hearing that the company was still trying to determine what action if any it would ask of the judge for the delayed disclosure.
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Anna Driver)
((thomas.hals@thomsonreuters.com; +1 610 544 2712; Reuters Messaging: thomas.hals.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
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