Rupert Murdoch and his Fox network royally ticked off the judge just days before Dominion’s defamation trial is set to begin.
April 12, 2023

The sanction against Fox News came after Dominion lawyers revealed Fox has been delinquent turning over required material. That includes recordings of former Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani telling host Maria Bartiromo they had no evidence of the Dominion election fraud they were hawking.

As a former litigation paralegal, I can attest that judges do not take this kind of thing lightly. The Dominion judge is no exception. From The New York Times:

In imposing sanction on Fox, Judge Eric M. Davis of the Delaware Superior Court ruled that if Dominion now needed to do additional depositions or redo any already done that “Fox will do everything they can to make the person available, and it will be at a cost to Fox.”

He also said he would very likely appoint a special master to investigate Fox’s handling of discovery of documents and the question of whether Fox had inappropriately withheld details about Rupert Murdoch’s role as a corporate officer of Fox News.

The trial is scheduled to begin Monday, with jury selection beginning on Thursday. The Times said it’s not clear whether Dominion will conduct more depositions which, of course, would almost certainly delay trial. Regardless, Murdoch and his network have just caused themselves more legal headaches, or worse:

The judge told Fox’s lawyers to retain all internal communications between themselves relating to the officer issue from the time of March 20. He said he would weigh whether any additional sanctions should be put on Fox.

He said he was very concerned that there had been “misrepresentations to the court.”

“This is very serious,” Judge Davis said.

Couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch of folks!

Editor's Note: Fox shareholders are also suing Rupert Murdoch and four other directors for breach of fiduciary duty with regard to the Dominion lies they allowed on their air. It's a bad day for Rupert, especially after he called off his engagement, reportedly because his beloved called Tucker Carlson "a messenger from God" and Rupert said "NOPE." - Karoli

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