Maria Bartiromo, the host of Fox Business Network’s weekday morning show Mornings with Maria and Sunday Morning Futures on Fox News, is the latest name set to appear for a deposition in the defamation case brought on by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News Media.
According to Stephen Battaglio from the Los Angeles Times, Bartiromo is set to give her deposition on Sept. 8, as Dominion is seeking $1.6 billion in damages due to Fox News repeatedly airing false claims about the company during the 2020 presidential elections.
During that time, Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell, allies to former President Trump, appeared on Bartiromo’s show and other Fox News programs to promote the already disproven theories that the election results were rigged through Dominion’s voting systems in favor of current president Joe Biden.
The lawsuit contends that Bartiromo continued to feature voter fraud claims about Dominion, despite being notified that the lies had already been debunked by independent fact-checkers, government officials and election security experts.
Other Fox News personalities called to give depositions in Dominion’s defamation case include Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and former Fox Business Network anchor Lou Dobbs. Meade Cooper, a Fox News executive who oversees prime-time opinion programming, has also been called by the courts to give a deposition.
Fox News, for its part, says that the news division’s reporting on the voter fraud allegations brought on by the former president and his allies was newsworthy and protected by the first amendment.
The network, in a statement to TVNewser, said, “We are confident we will prevail as freedom of the press is foundational to our democracy and must be protected, in addition to the damages claims being outrageous, unsupported and not rooted in sound financial analysis, serving as nothing more than a flagrant attempt to deter our journalists from doing their jobs.”
In its coverage, the Washington Post added:
Dan Webb, a veteran trial lawyer recently added to Fox’s defense team, said the network was merely reporting on a hugely important story that was propelled by Trump and his allies’ loud allegations of a rigged election.
“There are very few events in the last 50 years in this country that I think are more newsworthy than our president alleging that our entire Democratic system was put on its head by a voting machine company stealing votes,” Webb told The Post.
Fox News is also dealing with a $2.7 billion defamation suit from Smartmatic, which also accuses Bartiromo of intentionally lying about the voting technology company, in an effort to mislead the public into the false belief that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Trump.