“Fox took a small flame and turned it into a forest fire,” a lawsuit by Dominion Voting System reads. The election equipment manufacturer filed the suit against Fox News over false election fraud claims that implicated the company.
“As the dominant media company among those viewers dissatisfied with the election results, Fox gave these fictions a prominence they otherwise would never have achieved. With Fox’s global platform, an audience of hundreds of millions, and the inevitable and extensive republication and dissemination of the falsehoods through social media, these lies deeply damaged Dominion’s once-thriving business,” the 441-page lawsuit reads in part, per a report by NBC News.
Dominion is suing Fox News for $1.6 billion and marks the fifth billion-dollar lawsuit filed by an election company over the debunked claims of election fraud during the 2020 election.
Dominion also reportedly sued Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, attorneys associated with former president Donald Trump, as well as one of Trump’s supporters Mike Lindell, for perpetuating the lies about the company.
During the election, Trump and his associates falsely claimed the election was rigged as the result of widespread voter fraud and accused companies like Dominion of playing a part in the alleged rigging. Those claims, the lawsuit says, negatively impacted Dominion’s business dealings.
Federal officials said in a report by the Department of Homeland Security found “no evidence” that the election results were false or changed.
The false claims of voter fraud and election rigging was the subject of Trump’s second impeachment trial following the January 6 deadly riot at the US Capitol. Advocates also say GOP state lawmakers across the country are using the claims to pass voter restrictions laws to stem access to the ballot for millions.
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