Internal Fox News email shows network knew it was spreading falsehoods in 2020 election

Fox News appears to have knowingly spread falsehoods about the 2020 election, according to an internal email revealed Wednesday during a summary judgement hearing in Dominion Voting System’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the cable news network.

Dominion alleges Fox knowingly spread the false claims of election fraud in an effort to boost ratings.

According to court documents obtained by The Associated Press, Fox News “sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process.”

The email revealed in a slide during a summary judgement hearing appears to support Dominion’s assertion. MSNBC’s Katie S. Phang tweeted the slide showing an internal email from Fox News Information Specialist Leonard Balducci to Fox News producers dated Nov. 13, 2020.

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Balducci in the email fact checks Trump’s claims that “Dominion deleted 2.7 million Trump votes nationwide. Data analysis finds 221,000 Pennsylvania votes switched from President Trump to Biden. 941,000 Trump votes deleted. States using dominion voting systems switched 435,000 votes from Trump to Biden.”

But Trump’s claim flunked Balducci’s fact-check, according to the email, sent under the subject line “BRAINROOM: Background: Dominion Voting Systems & Criticism / Accusations – Fact Checks”

The facts, according to Balducci, were that “There’s no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, or of major problems with Dominion’s systems. Election officials from both political parties have stated publicly that the election went well and international observers confirmed there were no serious irregularities.”