Jury selection begins in Dominion’s US$1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News
- Prospective jurors are being questioned behind closed doors in one of the most closely watched US defamation cases in years
- Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox Corp and Fox News in 2021, accusing them of airing false claims by former President Donald Trump and his lawyers
Jury selection began on Thursday in a US$1.6 billion defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox Corp in a process to choose 12 people from a heavily Democratic county in Delaware to decide whether Fox News knowingly aired false claims on vote-rigging in the 2020 US presidential election.
Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis, presiding over the case in Wilmington, is questioning prospective jurors behind closed doors in one of the most closely watched US defamation cases in years, involving a leading cable news outlet with numerous conservative commentators. In Delaware, lawyers are not allowed to speak directly with potential jurors.
Opening statements in the five-week trial are expected to begin on Monday, after a jury has been chosen.
Dominion sued Fox Corp and Fox News in 2021, accusing them of ruining its reputation by airing false claims by Republican former President Donald Trump and his lawyers that the Denver-based company’s voting machines were used to rig the outcome of the election against him and in favour of Democrat Joe Biden.
The trial is considered a test of whether Fox’s coverage crossed the line between ethical journalism and the pursuit of ratings, as Dominion alleges and Fox denies.
