Fox News hires new legal counsel in defamation case with Dominion

Fox News has included a new attorney as element of its legal workforce in its battle with Dominion Voting Systems, which is suing the cable information big for defamation soon after it aired untrue claims about voter fraud adhering to the 2020 election.

Fox has employed Dan Webb, a veteran protection attorney and higher-profile lawyer, as section of its lawful group as it moves to have the scenario introduced by Dominion dismissed.

Webb is the previous United States Lawyer for the Northern District of Illinois and was the exclusive counsel investigating the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s. Much more recently, he was appointed to serve as distinctive counsel investigating how officials in Chicago taken care of a situation involving actor Jussie Smollett.

Webb’s “vast working experience in trial litigation will incorporate depth to our lawful group, guaranteeing the protection of the Very first Modification and the fundamental correct to a totally free press remain intact,” Fox claimed in a assertion to The Hill on Wednesday.

Late final thirty day period, a Excellent Court docket Judge in Delaware denied a motion from Fox Corp. to dismiss the match, expressing Dominion had sufficiently revealed Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, who personal and work Fox News’s dad or mum corporation, might have knowingly permitted unproven statements about voter fraud to be aired on the channel.

In a courtroom filing, Dominion argued the Murdochs “decided to advertise former President Trump’s narrative just after Trump’s condemnation of Fox broken its stock and viewership.”

Fox’s lawful group has sought to have the situation dismissed on Initially Modification grounds, arguing lots of of the fake statements about voter fraud aired by the network were created by visitors on the channel.

“Limiting the capacity of the press to report freely on the American election approach stands in stark contrast to the liberties on which this nation was founded,” Fox claimed in a statement on Wednesday, incorporating it was “confident we will prevail in this scenario as the Very first Amendment is the foundation of our democracy and liberty of the push ought to be safeguarded.”

Fox is also struggling with a lawsuit from a different voting units business, Smartmatic, about equivalent statements about voter fraud. Equally Dominion and Smartmatic have sued other more compact cable news channels, which includes 1 America Information and Newsmax, more than promises created on those people networks about the organizations and their application.