Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch Deposed in $2.7 Billion Smartmatic Election Lawsuit
Murdoch plans to marry his fifth wife on June 1 at his California vineyard.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch will face questioning on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of a $2.7. billion lawsuit filed by voting systems company Smartmatic, RadarOnline.com has learned.
The former chairman will be in the hot seat yet again for a deposition stemming from another defamation lawsuit accusing Fox News of airing falsities about the 2020 presidential election, similar to the one filed by Dominion Voting Systems.
Rupert Murdoch is engaged again within a year of calling off his wedding to Ann Lesley Smith.
As we previously reported, Fox agreed to pay Dominion a staggering $787 million to settle. During his deposition for that case, Murdoch said some anchors did parrot false fraud claims in the months after the election.
"Some of our commentators were endorsing it," Murdoch said during the deposition.
The Smartmatic lawsuit, by the same token, accuses Fox and its hosts of knowingly spreading lies that the company's software "flipped" votes to President Joe Biden from Republican rival Donald Trump.
Fox previously agreed to pay Dominion a staggering $787 million to settle their lawsuit.
Murdoch is not listed as a defendant while Fox personalities Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, and former opinion host Lou Dobbs are in the explosive lawsuit. Rudy Giuliani and pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell are among those defendants.
Smartmatic is demanding a payout due to the damage caused by the defendants' "disinformation campaign."
Murdoch stepped down as chairman of Fox and News Corp. in September, giving his son Lachlan the reins while Murdoch is now chairman emeritus of the companies.
"Some of our commentators were endorsing it," Murdoch said during the previous Dominion lawsuit.
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"Our companies are in robust health, as am I," the media mogul told employees at the time. "We have every reason to be optimistic about the coming years – I certainly am, and plan to be here to participate in them. But the battle for the freedom of speech and, ultimately, the freedom of thought, has never been more intense."
Fox has denied Smartmatic's accusations and tried to have the case dismissed. Murdoch is now set to be deposed in Los Angeles, according to multiple reports.
Murdoch is engaged to retired molecular biologist Elena Zhukova.
Smartmatic lawyers, on the other hand, said Fox and its fellow defendants "needed someone to blame."
"They needed someone whom they could get others to hate. A story of good versus evil, the type that would incite an angry mob, only works if the storyteller provides the audience with someone who personifies evil," the docs stated.
"Without any true villain, defendants invented one," according to the lawsuit. "Defendants decided to make Smartmatic the villain in their story."
Fox released a statement of their own amid the ongoing legal battle.
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"We will be ready to defend this case surrounding extremely newsworthy events when it goes to trial, likely in 2025," the network said in a statement about the case. "As a report prepared by our financial expert shows, Smartmatic's damages claims are implausible, disconnected from reality, and on its face intended to chill First Amendment freedoms."
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