How a 'licensing issue' with Fox News' lawyer is making its Dominion 'headache' worse: report

Fox News continues to face billion-dollar lawsuits from two companies that specialize in voting equipment, Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, for promoting the false claim that their equipment was used to help now-President Joe Biden steal the 2020 election from Donald Trump — a claim that has been repeatedly and thoroughly debunked. On Sunday, October 23, according to Vanity Fair, Fox Corp’s “legal woes” may have “become even more complicated by the fact, first reported by Semafor, that Fox Corp.'s top lawyer Viet Dinh only became licensed to practice law in California in June — despite becoming the company’s chief legal officer in September 2018.”

Vanity Fair’s Charlotte Klein, reporting on October 24, explains, “Dinh, Fox Corp.’s chief legal and policy officer, is licensed to practice law in Washington, D.C., but when the issue of his law license in California — where he is based — first came to Fox’s attention internally, in 2018, the lawyer dismissed the concern, according to Semafor…. An anonymous Fox News spokesperson claimed that Dinh’s application had been delayed first by the State Bar of California losing Dinh’s application and then by COVID-19; however, the State Bar of California’s executive director rejected both of those claims.”

According to Klein, “The licensing issue only adds to the headache Fox is facing with these cases. Fox claims it is protected by the First Amendment and that the outlet was covering newsworthy allegations. The $1.6 billion Dominion case is in discovery, and some of Fox’s biggest stars, like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are being deposed.”