Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation trial does not begin until Monday, but the judge overseeing the case is unhappy with how Fox News has handled itself leading up to the trial.
On Wednesday, during another round of pretrial hearings, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis sanctioned the news network and its parent company Fox Corp., for withholding additional evidence related to this case.
The judge accused Fox News attorneys of not being “straightforward” with him when it came to handing over evidence in a timely manner.
The latest instance involves new evidence uncovered by Dominion’s legal team, which included recorded conversations between former FNC producer Abby Grossberg with Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and others in 2020.
Grossberg, who is also suing Fox News, in an amended filing on Tuesday, provided these recordings, which in turn played were played in the courtroom by Dominion’s attorneys on Wednesday.
Dominion’s attorneys, including Davida Brook, complained to the judge about the manner by which they keep coming across new information, saying, “We keep on learning about more relevant information from individuals other than Fox,” adding, “And to be honest, we don’t really know what to do about that, but that is the situation we find ourselves in.”
In response, Fox News said in a statement, “As counsel explained to the Court, FOX produced the supplemental information from Ms. Grossberg when we first learned it.”
Nevertheless, Judge Davis sanctioned Fox News and ruled that Dominion is eligible to proceed with additional depositions or can redo existing ones.
“Fox will do everything they can to make the person available, and it will be at a cost to Fox,” he said.
The judge added that he’s concerned that “misrepresentations” occurred within the court and warned that he is taking this issue very seriously.
Judge Davis is also leaning towards appointing a special master to investigate Fox’s handling of the discovery of documents and whether Fox News had inappropriately withheld details about Rupert Murdoch’s role as a corporate officer of the news network.
“Rupert Murdoch has been listed as executive chairman of FOX News in our SEC filings for several years and this filing was referenced by Dominion’s own attorney during his deposition,” the network said in a statement.
Judge Davis could still impose additional sanctions on Fox. In the meantime, he has advised attorneys for the network to retain all internal communications from March 20 relating to the officer title issue.
With the trial slated to start on Monday and jury selection taking place this Thursday, it is yet to be known whether Dominion has the ability to conduct a round of depositions within that time frame.
This is a setback for the news network as it heads to trial.