Dominion filing is 'absolute nightmare fuel' for Fox News' lawyers: legal expert

The explosive court filing made this week by Dominion Voting Systems revealed multiple Fox News hosts and producers didn't believe many of the false claims that were airing on their network.

Jeff Kosseff, a cybersecurity law professor at the United States Naval Academy, read through the complaint and came away believing that Dominion's attorneys may have actually met the very high bar needed to prove malice in a defamation lawsuit.

Writing on Twitter, Kosseff highlighted some passages from the Dominion filing that he believes should be "absolute nightmare fuel" for Fox's attorneys as they work to defend their client against a $1.6 billion lawsuit being brought against it.

In one example, Gary Schreier, senior vice president of programming for Fox Business, said in private messages to Fox Business News President Lauren Petterson that he believed host Maria Bartiromo was spouting some "crazy sh*t," to which Petterson replied that Bartiromo needed to "get off social [media] all together."

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In another telling set of messages, the lawsuit notes that Ron Mitchell, the Fox News Senior Vice President of Primetime Programming and Analytics, repeatedly ridiculed attorney Sidney Powell's claims about Dominion's machines being part of a conspiracy set in motion by the late Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez to steal the election from Trump.

The lawsuit alleges that Mitchell did nothing to stop Fox News hosts from inviting on either Powell or fellow conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell.

Fox News has pushed back against Dominion's claims, however, and has accused the firm of "cherry picking" quotes to make the network appear deceptive.

"There will be a lot of noise and confusion generated by Dominion and their opportunistic private equity owners, but the core of this case remains about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution and protected by New York Times v. Sullivan," Fox said in an official statement.