Fox News execs blocked Trump from doing interview during Jan. 6 Capitol riot, filing shows

Within 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 try to appear on the network’s air, in accordance with court documents filed Thursday.

The documents allege that the previous president dialed into on-air personality Lou Dobbs’ show the afternoon of Jan. 6, but that executives shut down Trump’s efforts to seem on air.

“Fox refused to permit President Trump on air that evening because ‘it might be irresponsible to place him on the air’ and ‘could impact lots of people in a negative way,'” the filings said.

The documents were publicly released for the primary time this week as a 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 corporate’s voting machines rigged the outcomes of the 2020 election. The suit is pending on the Delaware Superior Court.

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, in addition to 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 within the claims of fraud being made against Dominion that it rigged the election. The anchors specifically doubted fraud claims by pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell and Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani.

Ingraham said in a message to Carlson: “Sidney is an entire nut. Nobody will work together with her. Ditto with Rudy,” in accordance with the documents.

Fox and its networks have rigorously denied the claims. In court papers Thursday, Fox Corp said it had “no role within the creation and publication of the challenged statements – all of which aired on either Fox Business Network or Fox News Channel.” 

Meanwhile, Fox News reiterated in court papers that it “fulfilled its commitment to tell fully and comment fairly” on the claims that Dominion rigged the election against Trump. 

“There will probably be lots of noise and confusion generated by Dominion and their opportunistic private equity owners, however the core of this case stays about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, that are fundamental rights afforded by the Structure and guarded by Latest York Times v. Sullivan,” Fox said in an announcement issued Thursday. 

Dominion said in court papers that Fox and its hosts felt pressure from the audience backlash on the 2020 election night when it called the state of Arizona for Biden. That pressure was evident in text messages between Fox’s top personalities within the weeks following the election, which continued through Jan. 6.

The night before Jan. 6, Rupert Murdoch told Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, “It has been suggested our prime time three should independently or together say something like ‘the election is over and Joe Biden won,'” in accordance with court papers. Saying so “would go a protracted approach to stop the Trump myth that the election was stolen,” he added.

On the evening of Jan. 6, Carlson texted his producer, calling Trump “a demonic force. A destroyer. But he isn’t going to destroy us,” court papers show.

The lawsuit has been closely followed by First Amendment watchdogs and experts given libel lawsuits are sometimes centered around one falsehood but on this case, Dominion cites a protracted list of examples of Fox TV hosts making false claims even after they were proven to be unfaithful. Media corporations are sometimes broadly protected by the First Amendment. 

The trial is slated to start in mid-April.