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
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