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
And in a statement, fox admitted quote we acknowledge the court s rulings finding certain claims about dominion to be false, which translated means that yes , they spent months and months lying to their viewers about dominion voting systems among other things, and as a result were in such fear of what a jury trial might create in terms of both the settlement and embarrassment for the company. they wrote a check for $787 million 500,000. cnn s oliver darcy is outside the courthouse in wellington, delaware. um oliver, i assume we re not going to hear remarks from fox s attorneys. um one question i have is that newsmax and o a n. which are these much smaller right wing propaganda channels they were forced to read statements on air in which they
And so that s making the way through the core system as well. smartmatic actually just put out a statement their lead attorney, i want to read it to you, jack. we just got this, he said dominions litigation exposed some of the misconduct and damaged caused by fox s disinformation campaign. smartmatic will expose the rest . and so there is more litigation jake for fox news to deal with down the line, but still $787 million is not is not a small figure for fox to have to shell out for those lies no and as was noted earlier by elie honig. the company isn t even worth $100 million, much less $787,500,000. oliver darcy, thanks so much. keep telling us news as it develops. let s bring back cnn legal analysts laura coates. and elie honig, ellen. and what do you make about the fact that the settlement amount was not confidential? i m sure fox would have preferred that it was, of course, this is a really surprising and important detail here, jake that the amount is
Think for fox, especially given the hand they had been dealt, i mean, it was very clear that they were dishonest about what happened in the wake of the 2020 election. the judge already ruled that they had broadcast false material so it would have been up to the jury basically to decide whether they had broadcast that false material with actual malice or reckless disregard for the truth, and i got to say, and i talked to a lot of first amendment lawyers, dominion had really assembled evidence from messages and emails that showed that you know, potentially they did. crossed that line into knowingly broadcasting false material, which would have been actual malice and which would have probably resulted or potential resulted in dominion winning this case, jake oliver darcy outside the courthouse in wellington, delaware, for us, thank you so much, so just to bring you this news, delaware superior court judge eric davis has praised both lawyers for fox and lawyers for dominion after they abru
Learned after the 2020 election. that the family of that poor murdered dnc staffer seth rich had also reached a settlement with fox for its lies about seth rich and part of the arrangement that fox had with the family of seth rich and the insane and cruel conspiracy theories. they pushed what was that? a would. there would be an a nondisclosure agreement. so the family of seth rich can t talk about it and be that news of it wouldn t even come out oliver until after the 2020 election. is sarah come, and it will be interesting to see whether a public apology is part of this settlement. we don t really have any details again. this just broke seconds before we came on the air, jake, but you know, this is such an interesting moment. this would this trial would have really put fox on trial for the election lies they told in the wake of the 2020