Fox News suffered a harsh blow in the run-up to next week’s blockbuster trial as a Delaware judge overseeing Dominion Voting System’s defamation case against the right-wing network said he plans to appoint a special master to probe whether Fox lied about withholding evidence.
Besides being on the verge of naming an outside attorney to look into this matter, the judge also sanctioned Fox News for not disclosing evidence, allowing Dominion to conduct more depositions at the network’s expense.
The explosive news comes a day after a former Fox News producer alleged that the conservative cable giant had access to several audio recordings of Trump allies admitting they had no proof of their 2020 election fraud lies but failed to provide the audio to Dominion’s lawyers during discovery.
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“I am very concerned… that there have been misrepresentations to the court,” Superior Judge Eric Davis said at a pre-trial hearing on Wednesday. “This is very serious.”
Chastising the network’s lawyers, Davis added that he was “very uncomfortable right now” about the appearance that Fox didn’t fulfill all of its discovery obligations as it approached trial. He went on to say he would appoint an outside attorney to investigate whether Fox made “untrue or negligent” assertions about both its obligatory duties on evidence and its descriptions of Rupert Murdoch’s role at the network.
Lawyers for Fox initially insisted Murdoch didn’t have a formal role at Fox News, which could restrict how much discovery Dominion could seek into Murdoch’s role in the false election claims. But at a hearing this week, a Fox lawyer conceded that Murdoch is the executive chairman of Fox News.
“Rupert Murdoch has been listed as executive chairman of FOX News in our SEC filings for several years and this filing was referenced by Dominion's own attorney during his deposition,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement.
The special master will also look into possible sanctions against the network, including informing jurors in the case Dominion was improperly blocked from obtaining pertinent evidence.
Abby Grossberg, a former Tucker Carlson producer who was fired by Fox News last month after accusing the network of coercing her to give false testimony in the Dominion case, filed an amended legal complaint on Tuesday claiming that the network failed to disclose evidence she made available.
In her complaint, Grossberg alleged that Fox failed to disclose several potentially explosive audio recordings to Dominion during the discovery process.
The recordings, which Grossberg said she captured on her phone with the transcription app Otter, allegedly include a Trump official saying the campaign had found no problems with voting machines in Georgia.
Other recordings, according to Grossberg, included Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani saying they couldn’t find evidence to prove some of their claims about voting machine fraud—allegations that later aired on Fox and helped prompt Dominion’s lawsuit.
Lawyers for Dominion also played these recordings in the courtroom on Wednesday, prompting Davis to admonish the network’s attorneys for failing to hand them over to the voting software firm during discovery.
The judge then said that Dominion would be afforded a chance to conduct additional depositions, all at the expense of Fox News. “Fox will do everything they can to make the person available, and it will be at a cost to Fox,” Davis said.
“We are pleased that the Court recognized the very serious apparent discovery-related and other gross misconduct perpetrated by Fox News and its team of high-powered attorneys in relation to the Dominion v. Fox lawsuit that our client, Abby Grossberg, has courageously and repeatedly revealed in her lawsuits against the Network,” Grossberg’s attorneys Parisis Filippatos and Tanvir Rahman told The Daily Beast after the pre-trial hearing.
“It is important to remember that Fox News attempted numerous times to gag Ms. Grossberg from revealing the very information that the Court found deeply troubling and worthy of sanctions today, before viciously trying to destroy her career,” they continued. “Ms. Grossberg remains committed to speaking the truth in all appropriate forums, including before a Special Master appointed by the Court, while our firm will continue to ensure that she obtains the justice she deserves.”
Fox News had previously sought a court order to silence Grossberg prior to her filing her lawsuits against the network, claiming the producer was threatening to divulge privileged conversations she had with Fox lawyers. The network would then fire Grossberg after her legal claims were filed, stating she “violated our instructions” by revealing the confidential discussions.
Jury selection is still scheduled for Thursday, and it is not clear yet if Dominion’s lawyers will take advantage of the judge allowing them to conduct more depositions.
In its $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit, Dominion accuses Fox News of knowingly airing election fraud lies about the company in order to boost its sagging ratings after MAGA viewers bolted following the network’s early Arizona call for President Joe Biden. Fox News has vehemently denied these allegations.
“As counsel explained to the Court, FOX produced the supplemental information from Ms. Grossberg when we first learned it,” a network spokesperson told The Daily Beast.
A spokesman for Dominion declined to comment.
