Fox News insiders rattled over Dominion lawsuit revelations: 'No one expects Fox to come away stronger'

In the face of two defamation lawsuits that could cost the company billions of dollars, management at Fox News summoned producers to attend mandatory training sessions on libel law, Vanity Fair reported.

Voting tech companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic are trying to prove Fox acted with "actual malice" when hosts at the network endorsed Donald Trump's false claims of mass voter fraud in the 2020 election even though the network knew the claims weren't true.

According to Vanity Fair, one staffer cracked that the trainings were coming "a little bit late." A producer who attended the trainings said that although Dominion and Smartmatic weren't mentioned by name in the trainings, they all "knew why we were there.”

While such trainings are routine, "there is nothing routine about this moment in Fox News history," writes Vanity Fair's Brian Stelter.

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"Every new legal filing in Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation suit sets off a wave of coverage, criticism, and mockery, from the front page of The New York Times to the cold open of Saturday Night Live," Stelter writes. "More revelations came Tuesday, including Tucker Carlson saying of Donald Trump, 'I hate him passionately,' and Rupert Murdoch saying 'I hate our Decision Desk people'—the ones who accurately projected that Joe Biden had beat Trump."

New revelations in the suits show Fox's most high-profile opinion hosts disparaging the network's hard news side -- details that some on Fox's news side once suspected but now see being confirmed.

Sources at Fox speaking to Stelter say they feel "embarrassed" about the scandal even if they don't feel personally responsible. "No one I spoke to expects Fox will come out of a trial as a stronger brand," writes Stelter.

"The legal filings have reignited questions about a leadership vacuum at Fox News and sister channel Fox Business, where hosts pushed voter fraud conspiracy theories for weeks on end," Stelter's report stated. "Fox stalwarts often bring up founding CEO Roger Ailes in this context. 'If Roger were still here, this never would have happened,' one said."

Read the full report over at Vanity Fair.