cnn breaking news. welcome to the lead. we have some breaking news for you. i m jake tapper. moments ago, we learned there is a settlement a settlement in the high stakes trial between dominion voting systems and fox dominion was suing fox for $1.6 billion, saying that the network showed complete and utter disregard for truth and facts and accuracy. when they allowed guests and hosts to push false conspiracy theories that the 2020 election had been stolen from donald trump. cnn s oliver darcy is outside the courthouse in delaware. oliver. what do we know about the settlement? we know right now. the judge just announced actually moments ago, jake that this case has been settled out of court. we don t know any details about what happened. but there was this unexplained two hour delay in court proceedings. this settlement really comes right before the clock struck struck midnight jake opening statements were set to begin at 1 30. they did not as scheduled, and there was an unexp
Price tanking, really remarkable, stunning. inside details in the wake of the 2020 election that it showed the panic inside of fox news and why they protect but perhaps you know how these elections lies to take hold on the network. you know, it gave us a view inside fox that frankly, we have never seen before. of course, we would have learned more during this trial, seeing someone like rupert murdoch being forced to take the stand and being cross examined by dominion. but we have learned a lot about how fox operates the dishonest way it operates as a result of the proceedings that led up to the potential trial, and we also saw that when reporters like kristin fisher, who now works at cnn, not coincidentally, tried to fact check people at in the executive branch of fox. other anchors hosts in the primetime opinion hours would get mad they would get mad when people asserted facts on their air people in the news division and,
You will never be able to recoup over a period of time. it seemed that the bulk of their claim had to do with the latter of it. not only the idea that we re going to lose is business, but that they had taken such a fatal blow to their integrity. there are actual counties as you know, we ve covered here on cnn that shows no longer to use dominion because of the allegations that were present and unfounded and that took a hit at an exponential level, so likely it s based on that. but as as ellie talked about juries have a mind of their own and when they believe that actual malice is involved, which could have resulted here, then you could have an even a significant 12. a different tune. what that number is, we might never know and also let s talk about the court of public opinion here. listen we all leaned in when we heard about these text messages we wanted to know about this. the idea of cash. what would this spectacle look like? and the irony that truth would actually be on trial and b
In fact, a lot of people. kristin fisher, who s now at cnn, but also a lot of other people, like chris dyer, walt and others who were trying to assert facts. were ultimately let go from fox. yeah i mean, it was really remarkable to read these details because not only were they promoting lies about the election, but they were disciplining staff behind the scenes for trying to tell the truth about the election. it s really showed and highlighted the fact free universe in which fox operates, which, actually, to some degree would have made this process of this trial of war to have happened, more agonizing. for the network because the network is used to sailing through controversies by misleading viewers. bad faith attacks on critics attacking the media. those things jake would not have been allowed in a trial , the judge would have compelled fox to put forth a honest fact based narrative for the jury. and so that would have been a very uncomfortable position. i
Legal team defending against this action and all the automatic. remember what s really important about this is this number is not appealable. it s not as if it was a jury. verdict in the finding of damages where they can then go back and then litigate through a protracted proceeding and try to maybe even take it all up the supreme court and a variety of ways. this is what they have agreed upon, and they are stuck with this number will also factor in that for talking about fox news and what their overall bottom line will be. if you imagine what kind of pool of money you re going to have access to, in order to be able to pay out settlement you re factoring in not just before you in front of you on this main plate of this trial, but what might be down the road. going to significantly impact what is now available as part of that overall pot down the road. and so this shaving of about half of the amount that was requested before now opens up more room for salman opportunities for smartmatic