Trump calls on Rupert Murdoch to back false 2020 election fraud claims ahead of Dominion trial
Former President Donald Trump on Monday called on Rupert Murdoch to back false information about the 2020 presidential election ahead of the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit Dominion Voting Systems has pursued against Fox News and its parent company. .
Trump on Truth Social alleged that Fox News is “in big trouble if they do not expose the truth on cheating in the 2020 election.” There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would have impacted the outcome of the 2020 race for the White House.
The former president suggested that the media tycoon and chair of the Fox Corporation “should say that ‘he just didn’t know,’ but that is hard to believe.”
“Rupert, just tell the truth and good things will happen,” Trump added.
Delaware:Dominion defamation trial in lawsuit against Fox delayed to Tuesday
OnPolitics:Behind the contentious House GOP hearing in New York: Crime? Or Trump?
Dominion trial to start in Delaware
Top executives and hosts at Fox News have privately shared that they didn’t believe Trump’s allegations of election fraud in the 2020 race, according to a court filing in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against the network.
Murdoch called false voter fraud claims “damaging” in a text following a press conference from Trump allies Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, according to filings. He also told Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott “It’s been suggested our prime time three should independently or together say something like ‘the election is over and Joe Biden won,’” saying the comments “would go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election stolen,” the filing says.
Trump’s comments come the day before the defamation lawsuit that Dominion Voting Systems is waging against Fox News and its parent company is set to start. Dominion filed a lawsuit against Fox in 2021 after the network reported on unproven claims that the voting machine company played a role in rigging the 2020 race.
Fox News has denied wrongdoing and called the lawsuit a “political crusade in search of a financial windfall.”
Contributing: Ella Lee, USA TODAY; Meredith Newman, Delaware News Journal
