Fox Hosts Encouraged Lawyers to Overturn Election: Filings

Newly unsealed court documents portray Fox News hosts as privately rooting for Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and urging on his lawyers—even as the network was airing false claims about voting machines. The filings in Smartmatic's defamation lawsuit against Fox reveal that Fox Business Network's Maria Bartiromo and Lou Dobbs exchanged messages with Sidney Powell, a lawyer and Trump associate, the Wall Street Journal reports. "We must keep you out there," Bartiromo urged Powell, later pleading for her to "overturn this" and "bring the evidence." Dobbs told Powell, "It's up to us—we few!" as he pledged to stop what he described as a "coup d'etat."

In a text message, Fox's Jesse Watters told his colleague Greg Gutfeld: "Think about how incredible our ratings would be if Fox went ALL in on STOP THE STEAL," referring to Trump's movement trying to overturn the voting results. The documents were filed in New York State Supreme Court on Tuesday, per the New York Times. Smartmatic sued Fox in 2021, claiming the network aired bogus allegations that its voting machines helped rig the election. These court filings echo evidence in Dominion Voting Systems' similar lawsuit, which Fox settled for $787.5 million last year.

Fox says Smartmatic was struggling before 2020 and argues that its reputation problems weren't sparked by the network's reporting. The documents highlight internal concerns at Fox about coverage following the networks early call of Arizona for Biden on election night, which cost it viewers. Smartmatic argues this spurred Fox to promote election fraud theories to win back its audience. At the same time, Jeanine Pirro, a former Fox host who just became US attorney for the District of Columbia, vented about censorship and the network's handling of the election call, per the Journal. Both Fox and Smartmatic have asked the judge in the case to rule without a trial.