Start of trial in Dominion vs. Fox News lawsuit delayed until Tuesday
Wilmington, Delaware — The trial of Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News has been delayed until Tuesday morning, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis announced late Sunday.
"The Court has decided to continue the start of the trial, including jury selection, until Tuesday," Davis said in a brief statement. He did not cite a reason for the delay.
Davis convened brief proceedings Monday morning, during which he reiterated the decision to postpone the trial's start by one day. The judge did not provide any additional information as to why the trial's start was delayed.
"This is not unusual," Davis said, adding that longer trials typically have delays. This trial is expected to last six weeks.
Jury selection is set to resume Tuesday morning, with opening statements to follow once the jury of 12 people and 12 alternatives is seated.
Dominion is suing the network, claiming Fox News knowingly spread disinformation about the company and its voting machines in the wake of the 2020 presidential election. The software company was at the center of conspiracy theories pushed by allies of former President Donald Trump following his election loss.
For their part, Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corporation, contend that the allegations they were covering were newsworthy, and statements made on the network were protected by the First Amendment.
In a filing dated Sunday, Fox's lawyers wrote that it was informed by Dominion on Friday that it is "walking away" from lost profit damages and will seek only "lost enterprise value" damages, "knocking more than half a billion dollars off the damages in its complaint."
Cited in latest court papers was an email sent on April 14 from one of Dominion's lawyers to Fox's legal team, which read, "This email confirms that Dominion will not be presenting its claim for lost profits damages to the jury, given that it is duplicative of the lost enterprise value damages."
But a spokesperson for the company said in response to Fox's filing that "the damages claim remains. As Fox well knows, our damages exceed $1.6 [billion]."
In their complaint filed in March 2021, Dominion requested damages for lost profits of at least $600 million and lost enterprises value for $1 billion.
The closely watched trial comes two years after Dominion filed its lawsuit against Fox News. The case has already resulted in the release of text messages and emails exchanged by some of the network's top stars and executives, pulling back the curtain on what was taking place at the cable news giant after Trump's loss.
Some of Fox News's most well-known current and former anchors are expected to testify, including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Maria Bartiromo and Lou Dobbs, along with the the network's co-founder, Rupert Murdoch.
Both sides requested Davis rule in their favor based on the evidence already developed. In an opinion late last month, Davis ruled that the evidence demonstrated it is "CRYSTAL clear that none of the statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true," and the statements from Fox News that are challenged by Dominion constitute defamation "per se."
But he said a jury will decide whether Fox acted with actual malice in broadcasting the allegations about Dominion and will determine whether the company is entitled to damages, and if awarded, how much.