Judge delays start of Fox News defamation trial hours before high-profile hearing begins

The judge did not provide a reason for pushing back the start of the closely watched case

A Delaware judge delayed the opening of a closely watched trial between a voting machine company and Fox News involving a $1.6bn defamation lawsuit against the network.

The trial was scheduled to begin inside Delaware Superior Court in Wilmington on 17 April following last week’s pre-trial hearings and jury selection. Judge Eric Davis did not cite a reason for the delay on Sunday night.

“The Court has decided to continue the start of the trial, including jury selection,” until Tuesday, 18 April, the judge announced.

Attorneys for Fox were set to defend the network against Dominion’s argument that false statements about the company in the wake of the 2020 presidential election were defamatory and cost Dominion significant business and reputational harm.

Defamation cases rarely go to trial, but it will be up to a jury to determine whether the claims that were aired on Fox News meet the high bar for the “actual malice” standard – knowingly presenting false claims with reckless disregard for the truth.

Last week, Judge Davis scolded attorneys for Fox News for failing to be “straightforward” with him and said he would impose sanctions on the network and investigate whether its legal team had deliberately withheld evidence.

He also said he would impose a special master, an outside counsel, to investigate Fox’s handling of discovery materials and whether Fox withheld information about the nature and scope of Fox Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch’s involvement.

The judge ruled that if Dominion needed other depositions, Fox would have to “do everything they can to make the person available, and it will be at a cost to Fox.”

That evidence includes recordings between Mr Giuliani and a Trump campaign aide with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, which Dominion said was turned over just one week earlier.

Davida Brook, a lawyer for Dominion, told the court last week that the legal team was still receiving relevant documents from Fox despite an imminent trial.

In a statement, Dominion said the evidence to be presented at trial “will show that Dominion was a valuable, rapidly growing business that was executing on its plan to expand prior to the time that Fox began endorsing baseless lies about Dominion voting machines.”

Dominion’s “business suffered enormously” as a result, according to a statement. “and its claim for compensatory damages is based on industry-standard valuation metrics and conservative methodologies. We look forward to proving this aspect of our case at trial.”

Attorneys and spokespeople for Fox have argued that the network not only had an obligation to cover such allegations, especially those endorsed by then-President Donald Trump, as newsworthy, but that they also are protected by the First Amendment. The network’s legal team has warned that the case could set a dangerous precedent for press freedoms and media companies’ abilities to report on other newsworthy allegations.