The judge is asked to bar references of the trial to the January 6 attack

Murdoch Deflamations in the 2020 Elections: Why Do The Murdochs Contain Rudy Giuliani?

Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis said at a hearing that if Dominion subpoenas the Murdochs to testify in-person, he would not quash those subpoenas, and the Murdochs would need to show up to the courthouse. The right-wing network has been accused of defaming Dominion when it claimed that the voting systems in the 2020 elections were rigged.

“They are relevant to the case… if Dominion wants to bring them live, they need to issue a trial subpoena, and I would not quash it,” Davis said. He said that it would be his choice if they came to testify in-person at the trial.

The lawsuit is seen as one of the most consequential defamation cases in recent memory. Many scholars agree that the bar is high for proof of defamation, despite Fox’s argument that a loss will destroy press freedoms. Other analysts have said holding Fox accountable for knowingly airing lies won’t pose a threat to objective journalists who would never do that in the first place.

Despite what appeared on air, Rupert Murdoch and other top Fox figures privately criticized the Trump camp in late 2020 for pushing claims of election fraud. It was “really bad” that Rudy Giuliani was advising Trump, Rupert Murdoch wrote in an email that was revealed in court filings.

In the case, the company argued that references to threats its employees faced in the aftermath of the 2020 are relevant to the situation, as it shows that Fox’s lies destroyed the company’s reputation.

Motions in limine after the Fox-Dominion attack on the Capitol, and the impact of the outcome of Dominion’s case

The documents made public on Thursday are called motions in limine and they are used to try to stop certain evidence from being used during a trial. These motions are common in criminal and civil proceedings. Depending on the judge’s ruling, the outcome of the motions could affect the trial in a big way.

There were a number of motions filed by both Fox and Dominion under seal last month. They filed the public versions of the documents with the judge. Media outlets had pressed the judge for more transparency, and to unseal these and other documents.

Fox argued in the documents that references to financial information and employee state of mind were irrelevant to the case.

Dominion’s lawyers argued that the attack on the U.S. Capitol “is central to almost every element of this case, and the Court should reject Fox’s motion in its entirety.”

“It also became incredibly difficult for Dominion to retain and win business because would-be customers themselves are inundated with death threats, harassment, and protests related to Dominion,” Dominion’s lawyers added.