The electoral machinery company Dominion Voting Systems on Friday sued Fox News for defamation for relaying conspiracy theories claiming that the company's machines were rigged to disadvantage Donald Trump in the 2020 US presidential election. Dominion Voting Systems claims some 1 , $ 6 billion conservative news channel.
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This is the second defamation complaint against Fox News, already attacked in early February on similar grounds by another electoral machinery company, Smartmatic.
The complaint claims $ 2.7 billion from media mogul Rupert Murdoch's channel.
Dominion has also previously sued Donald Trump's lawyer and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, and another lawyer for former US President Sidney Powell, for some $ 1.3 billion each.
In the 139-page Delaware high court lawsuit filed Friday, the company accuses Fox News of "
repeating and spreading devastating, verifiable falsehoods about Dominion
."
"Proud of our coverage of the 2020 election"
To satisfy his pro-Trump audience disappointed by his defeat, "
Fox turned a spark into a forest fire
," adds the complaint, which implicates several of the channel's presenters - Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartiromo.
Dominion "
is entitled to receive punitive remedies
,
"
given Fox's conscious desire to harm him
.
“
Lies have consequences,
” one of the company's lawyers, Stephen Shackelford, said in a statement.
The company claims more than 1.6 billion in damages, including one billion corresponding to the loss of value of the company, and 600 million in lost profits.
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As in the complaint filed by Smartmatic, Fox News reacted succinctly: "
We are proud of our coverage of the 2020 election, in the great tradition of American journalism, and we will vigorously defend ourselves in court against this baseless action
", said a spokesperson for the channel.