April 12 (UPI) — A Delaware Superior Court Judge on Wednesday sanctioned Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corp., for withholding evidence in its Dominion defamation lawsuit.
NBC News reported lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems played recordings Fox News producer Abby Grossberg made during 2020, which were not handed over during the discovery phase of the trial.
Judge Eric Davis said he was considering further investigation as a result.
The sanction provides another opportunity for Dominion to conduct a deposition and to do so at Fox’s expense.
Dominion filed the defamation lawsuit against Fox News parent company Fox Corp. two years ago, after the network said Dominion’s voting systems manipulated the 2020 election results.
In the lawsuit, Dominion says its reputation was damaged after Fox News tied it to a “rigged” presidential election, as well as paid kickbacks to politicians and the late leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
“The truth matters. Lies have consequences,” said Dominion in the suit. It provided voting machines and software to more than 28 states during the 2020 election.
The discovery comes one day after Davis said Dominion could not bring up in court the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
He said that references to the U.S. Capitol riot could taint the jury’s view of the case, which is not about whether Fox News “influenced” the insurrection.
