'A nightmare for Fox': CNN panel says right-wing cable network in massive trouble over Dominion lawsuit
On Thursday's edition of CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," a panel of legal experts weighed in on Dominion Voting Systems' preliminary victory at a key step of their lawsuit against Fox News.
"By putting Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, making these outrageous false allegations on the air without allowing Dominion to refute them, that's libel," said chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. "And that's what Fox is going to have to defend. And I don't know how they're going to defend it it. I think it's a very good case for the plaintiffs."
Cooper turned to former Nixon White House Counsel John Dean. "Legally, how difficult is it to prove individuals knew their statements were false, or that they were intentionally leaving out relevant information?"
"It's not easy," said Dean. "In fact, it's very surprising. Most of these cases get dismissed at this very early stage with a motion to dismiss. I think that probably handles overwhelming number of defamation cases, because the standard is very unique. They have to show actual malice that was employed, meaning that they either knew it was false and went ahead with it or they did it with reckless disregard, they had some indication but yet they still went ahead."
"This case has not been decided on any substance yet. Just on the pleadings," Dean added. "And it made the basic bar and got over that, which is going to be a nightmare for Fox, as Jeffrey says. They're going to now dig in deep and it's not going to be easy."
Watch below:
CNN panel discusses Dominion's preliminary legal victory against Fox News www.youtube.com