Former federal prosecutor: Fox was desperate to settle with Dominion — they will be with Smartmatic too
Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner said Wednesday that from his perspective, it appeared Fox News was desperate to settle with Dominion Voting Systems ahead of the trial that was set to begin this week.
Smartmatic, the other company with litigation against the conservative network, said in a statement Tuesday that they'd "expose the rest."
Speaking to MSNBC's Chris Jansing, Kirschner explained that Fox is still facing a few other lawsuits that are likely to expose even more details about the network than the Dominion case did.
"Well, Smartmatic indicated that there are more shoes to drop in that statement that you just referenced," Kirschner said. "Think about this, Dominion sued Fox for $1.6 billion in damages. Smartmatic is suing for considerably more, $2.7 million. Whereas this settlement is no legal precedent, it certainly is an atmospheric precedent. When you realize that Tuesday morning, yesterday morning, the judge felt compelled to appoint a special master to investigate Fox's lapses in its discovery violations, its misstatements to the court. You know, if I were Smartmatic's lawyers, I would probably file something seeking sort of a prophylactic order that [says], 'You know what, judge? I think we'll need a special master, too, to make sure Fox doesn't continue to violate the court's rules as it now has a track record of doing in other civil litigation.' It feels like the problems for Fox have only just begun."
Kirschner went on to say that he anticipates Smartmatic also smells a little blood in the water over a larger potential settlement
"Look at how desperate Fox was to settle the Dominion suit," he explained. "I think that the same motivators that led them to decide to pay out more than three-quarters of a billion dollars to Dominion to make that defamation suit will drive their decision in the Smartmatic litigation. There's a shareholder's derivative suit going against the executives and officers of Fox for not putting safeguards in place to protect against this kind of defamation."
The suit he is referencing comes from angry Fox shareholders that asked for documents Monday around whether there was derelict involved in "directors and executives properly oversaw Fox News' coverage of former President Donald Trump's election-rigging claims," reported Reuters.
"Investors are using provisions in Delaware corporate law to demand internal Fox records to investigate how Fox's leaders acted as its Fox News network aired segments on Trump's false claims that he lost the 2020 presidential election due to voter fraud," Reuters said, citing two sources.
Shareholders want board minutes and even emails looking for records like the board minutes. They also want text messages and emails that involve the decisions around the 2020 election lies.
"You also have one of Tucker Carlson's producers, Abby Grossberg, who is suing Fox, alleging they coerced her to make misrepresentations to try to protect the Fox Corporation," Kirschner continued. "You wonder if Fox loses monetary judgment after monetary judgment, how long can they remain solvent, remain a going concern?"
Grossberg also said that the network has secret tapes of Rudy Giuliani, who is one of the defendants Dominion is also suing.
See the full conversation below or at the link here.
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