Dominion Voting Systems Files $1.6 Billion Defamation Lawsuit Against Fox News

Dominion Voting Systems has filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, saying the network spread false claims that the voting machine company was involved in voter fraud during the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

"Fox sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process," said the lawsuit filed Friday in Delaware. "If this case does not rise to the level of defamation by a broadcaster, then nothing does."

"Fox endorsed, repeated, and broadcast a series of verifiably false yet devastating lies about Dominion," the complaint states, including claims that the company's software manipulated the results of the 2020 vote.

According to Dominion, some of its employees have faced harassment and even death threats over claims pushed by Fox News. The network did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment on the lawsuit.

Dominion is seeking at least $1.6 billion in lost profits and enterprise value, plus more than $1 million in security expenses and expenses combatting disinformation.

Dominion has also filed defamation lawsuits against Trump ally and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, and Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, lawyers who worked with Trump on his post-election flurry of legal actions. The company is seeking $1.3 billion in damages from each of them.

Dominion was not the only election technology targeted by Fox News. Last month, Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion lawsuit against the network, and named Fox stars Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro.

Fox News canceled Lou Dobbs' Tonight show shortly after Smartmatic filed its lawsuit. [Copyright 2021 NPR]