Former U.S. President Donald Trump, who announced a third run for the presidency in 2024, hosts a New Year’s Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. December 31, 2022.
Marco Bello | Reuters
In the hours after a violent mob breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, executives at Fox Corp vetoed former President Donald Trump’s attempt to appear on the network’s air, according to court documents filed Thursday.
The documents allege that the former president dialed into on-air personality Lou Dobbs’ show the afternoon of Jan. 6, but that executives shut down Trump’s efforts to appear on air.
“Fox refused to allow President Trump on air that evening because ‘it would be irresponsible to put him on the air’ and ‘could impact a lot of people in a negative way,'” the filings said.
The documents were publicly released for the first time this week as part of Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox Corp and its cable TV networks. Dominion brought the defamation lawsuit against Fox and its right-wing cable networks, Fox News and Fox Business, arguing the networks and its anchors made false claims that the company’s voting machines rigged the results of the 2020 election.
Dominion, Fox Corp and Fox News filed their motions for summary judgment this week, which unveiled evidence from months of discovery and depositions that had been private until this point. Fox News anchors, as well as top Fox Corp brass including Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch, were questioned in recent months.
The evidence also showed that Fox News’ top anchors, including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham expressed disbelief in the claims of fraud being made against Dominion that it rigged the election. The anchors in particular doubted fraud claims by pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell and Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani.
Ingraham said in a message to Carlson: “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy,” according to…
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