Fox News to pay Dominion $787m over election claims — biggest libel payment in US history

Fox News has settled a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million over its reporting of the 2020 US presidential election.

The settlement — about half of the $1.6bn initially sought by Dominion — was reached a few minutes before trial on Tuesday.

The case is the largest publicly known defamation settlement in US history involving a media company, CNN reports.

Fox was accused of reporting that Dominion’s vote counting machines were used to rig the presidential election in favour of President Joe Biden.

Dominion said its business was harmed by Fox’s alleged defamation.

John Poulos, Dominion chief executive officer, said Fox admitted to spreading disinformation and called the settlement “historic”.

“Fox has admitted to telling lies about Dominion that caused enormous damage to my company, our employees and our customers,” Poulos said.

“Truthful reporting in the media is essential to our democracy.”

In a statement, Fox said the settlement was a commitment to holding itself to the highest journalistic standards and urged the US to move forward from the situation.

“We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems,” Fox said.

“We acknowledge the court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards.

“We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues.”

Meanwhile, Smartmatic, another US voting technology company, is pursuing its own defamation lawsuit against Fox News, seeking $2.7 billion in damages over false election rigging claims.

A bid to dismiss the multibillion-dollar lawsuit by Fox was dismissed.