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Fox News’ deliberate smear campaign against Dominion Voting Systems led to terrifying death threats against employees and a loss of contracts—all because Fox was hemorrhaging viewers and advertisers—according to a new $1.6 billion lawsuit filed Friday morning.
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The lawsuit by Dominion claims that Fox News and its high-profile hosts deliberately pushed misinformation saying the voting-machine company helped Joe Biden “steal” the 2020 presidential election, which led to Dominion losing contracts and to vicious death threats against its employees.
Dominion had previously revealed that someone left a noose outside the home of one of its employees in February, but the new lawsuit details the full extent of the death threats, including this terrifying message left on Dominion’s customer support line:
“You’re all fucking dead. You’re all fucking dead, we’re bringing back the firing squad and you fuckers are all dead. Everybody involved up against the wall, you motherfuckers.”
And another person left the following message on Dominion’s main office line: “Yeah, good afternoon. Fuck you, fucking scumbags. We’re gonna blow your fucking building up. Piece of fucking shit.”
Another employee got an email with the subject line “Time is up” and with the message, “You have 24 hours…”
In this latest complaint, Dominion’s fourth lawsuit against high-profile right-wing figures, the company says Fox News’ campaign was driven by the fact that it was hemorrhaging viewers to stations like NewsMax and One America Network that were pushing the election fraud narrative much harder, and gaining the support of former President Donald Trump.
“Fox set out to lure viewers back—including President Trump himself—by intentionally and falsely blaming Dominion for President Trump’s loss by rigging the election,” the complaint reads.
The lawsuits details how Fox News leaned heavily into the election fraud narrative that originated in the QAnon fever swamp in a bid to regain viewers.
Fox News repeatedly boosted baseless claims that machines from Dominion Voting Systems, whose vote-counting machines were used in several states during the election, was part of a grand conspiracy to steal the election from Trump.
“Fox took a small flame and turned it into a forest fire. As the dominant media company among those viewers dissatisfied with the election results, Fox gave these fictions a prominence they otherwise would never have achieved,” the complaint reads.
Besides Fox News, the lawsuit names on-air stars Maria Bartiromo, Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, and Jeanine Pirro as co-defendants. Also listed as defendants are Kraken lawyer Sidney Powell, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, and Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani—all of whom have been individually sued by Dominion already.
Fox News is also facing a lawsuit filed by another technology company Smartmatic USA, who also claim the network broadcast baseless election fraud allegations about it.
As well as the damage to its reputation and the threats against its employees, Dominion’s claims the lies spread by Fox News have had a material impact on its ability to generate revenue.
For example, the lawsuit revealed that earlier this month, Dominion lost a $10 million contract in Stark County, Ohio that had already been awarded to the company, had been fully negotiated, and was awaiting signing pending approval of the Board of Commissioners, a step Dominion described as perfunctory.
