- New emails and texts from Fox News staff reveal frustration with former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell.
- The messages were released in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News.
- In some texts, Tucker Carlson says Powell is “lying” and Laura Ingraham says he’s “pretty nuts.”
A new set of emails released as part of Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News illuminates how host Tucker Carlson privately distanced himself from Sidney Powell, and He was even confronted about the lies in the election.
On Tuesday, a series of internal emails, private texts, and depositions helped illuminate the internal dynamics at Fox News after candidate Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election. The evidence released Tuesday is scheduled to be used as trial exhibits in an expected trial in April.
Newly released text messages show that between November 16 and 19, 2020, several Fox News hosts sought to distance themselves from Sidney Powell, and the claims he made about voter fraud tied to Dominion Voting Systems.
In a text message to host Laura Ingraham on November 16, 2020, Carlson mentioned that he plans to talk about Dominion Voting Systems on his show, and discussed the conspiracy theories that Powell has been spreading about the company. .
“The whole thing seems crazy to me, and Sidney Powell won’t release the evidence,” Carlson wrote.
“Sidney Powell is a little crazy,” Ingraham replied. “Sorry, but it’s him.”
“He makes everyone paranoid and crazy, including me,” Carlson replied.
The transcripts were released Tuesday as part of Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, which claims the network gave prominence to claims of election fraud as a survival tactic. also viewers as ratings fell following the loss of President Donald Trump.
“Sidney Powell is lying,” Carlson wrote in another text to an anonymous contact on November 17, 2020. “Fucking bitch.”
That same day, the 17th, newly released texts show Carlson speaking directly to Powell, challenging him as he claims “more evidence is pouring in.”
“You keep telling your viewers that millions of votes have been changed by software. I hope you prove that soon,” Carlson told Powell. “You’ve convinced them that Trump is going to win. If you don’t have conclusive evidence of fraud on that scale, it’s a cruel and reckless thing to keep saying.”
On November 19, 2020, Carlson cleared him of his rigged election claims on his show, and on November 22, 2020, Trump’s team cut ties with Powell, according to Politico. An email included in the files shows Fox News staff discussing negative conservative social media backlash against Carlson after he challenged Powell’s claims.
Dominion Voting Systems opposed Fox News’ move to dismiss the lawsuit in a new filing last week, in a high-stakes case set for a trial in April. The polling company alleges through depositions, and internal texts and emails, that Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch gave Jared Kushner advance knowledge of political ads and candidate debate preparation. Joe Biden. The documents released today are the exhibits underlying that filing.
Murdoch was also quoted from his depositions in the case, agreeing that he was “seriously skeptical” of any claims of widespread election fraud pushed by the Trump camp.
A Fox News spokesperson told Insider, in part, that Dominion’s legal team took Fox News’ comments out of context.
“Thanks to today’s filings, Dominion has been caught red-handed using multiple distortions and misinformation in its PR campaign to discredit FOX News and trample on free speech and press freedom,” a a Fox News spokesperson told Insider in a statement on Tuesday. “We already know they will say and do anything to try to win this case, but to twist and even misattribute quotes at the highest levels of our company is beyond the pale. ”
On March 26, 2021, Dominion filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News seeking $1.6 billion in damages, claiming the network gave importance to claims of election fraud as a tactic. to revive viewers as ratings plummeted following the loss of President Donald Trump.
Dominion manufactures and sells electronic voting hardware, software, and voting machines, and has been repeatedly targeted in conspiracies after the 2020 election.
And in the company’s lawsuit, Dominion claims that Fox News “pedaled a false story of election fraud to serve its own commercial purposes, severely harming Dominion in the process.”
Two months later, Fox News filed a motion to dismiss, and in December 2021, a judge rejected Fox’s motion.