Yahoo News Dominion CEO Defends Fox News Settlement Decision, Says “All Of The Facts We Had Discovered During The Case Had Already Come To Light”
John Poulos, the CEO of Dominion Voting Systems, defended the $787.5 million settlement with Fox News and Fox Corp., telling Good Morning America that “all of the facts we had discovered during the case had already come to light.”
Under the terms of the settlement, Fox News does not have to issue an on-air apology or retraction. In a statement released shortly after a judge announced on Tuesday afternoon that the parties had resolved the case, Fox said that “we acknowledge the court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.”
More from Deadline
In his interview with George Stephanopoulos, Poulos said, “There was an acknowledgement, and certainly it was not the way I wrote it. I had some conversations with our team, my co-founder and I, and at the end of the day, the court system is really about accountability. We feel we got it.”
Stephanopoulos pressed Poulos on the Fox statement, noting that the network just acknowledged that the judge said there were falsehoods.
“Is that enough?” Stephanopoulos asked.
RELATED: Fox News Settlement With Dominion Does Not Require On-Air Retraction Or Apology
Poulos replied, “Well, if you look at the documents, I think they speak for themselves. They did acknowledge. They did not argue falsity. And the motion for summary judgment was extremely clear. In fact, he used the language ‘crystal clear.'”
The settlement came just after a jury was sworn in for the case and just before opening statements were to begin. Fox Corp. executive chairman Rupert Murdoch was expected to be among the first figures called by Dominion to testify.
The settlement amount is one of the largest ever for a defamation claim. Over the past month of so, a trove of internal Fox emails, text messages and other documents were released in the case, showing that a number executives and Fox personalities thought that many of the 2020 election fraud claims were unfounded or even “crazy,” yet that did not keep the network’s hosts and guests from amplifying them. Fox said that its coverage was of the undoubtedly newsworthy claims of then-President Donald Trump, but the judge in the case said that could not be used as a defense in the case.
The discovery material also included embarrassing messages that may not have been shown to the jury, like Tucker Carlson’s remark to a friend that he hated Trump “passionately.” In other messages, Carlson and fellow hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham grouse over the news side of the network.
Hootan Yaghoobzadeh, the managing director and co-founder of Staple Street Capital, which owns a majority stake in Dominion, told CNBC that Fox “had never offered that amount” of money to settle the case before Tuesday.
In the GMA interview, Poulos said that the impact of the false claims of election fraud was “devastating” to Dominion.
“This was not a matter of our employees being harassed over a day a week or a month. It persists to this day. All of our partners that have chosen to work with us in the past has been affected. Our customers have been harassed and targeted for no other reason than their relationship with us.”
He added, “For us, it was never really about Fox per se. It was about telling the truth and the media telling the truth, and I think that what was important to us was for people to be held into account for when they recklessly and knowingly tell lies that have such devastating consequences…It is a big step forward in democracy if our system can send a signal that if media companies lie, whoever they are, on whatever channel it is, and they do so knowingly, they will be prepared to pay a very high price.”
Dominion has six other lawsuits, including claims against Newsmax and One America News, as well as Trump allies Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.
On CNN on Tuesday, lead attorney Justin Nelson told anchor Pamela Brown, “This is a civil litigation case and what we think happened here was we took the civil litigation as far as we can take it. We could have gone all the way to verdict and under defamation law, you don’t get an apology. You get money.”
Best of Deadline
Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries
2023 Premiere Dates For New & Returning Series On Broadcast, Cable & Streaming
Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
