Billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch will reportedly be questioned this week as part of Smartmatic Voting System‘s defamation suit against Fox News.
Smartmatic is seeking $2.7 billion in damages from Fox, accusing it of maliciously giving Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani a platform to air falsehoods about the 2020 election. (RELATED: Rupert Murdoch Can Be Forced To Testify In Defamation Trial)
The deposition is scheduled to take place on Tuesday in Los Angeles.
Fox has denied Smartmatic’s accusations and has unsuccessfully moved in court to have the case dismissed.
“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.”
In April, Fox agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787 million to settle similar defamation claims.
As part of that litigation, Dominion lawyers made public Rupert Murdoch’s sworn depositions and internal communications around the time of the 2020 election, some of which showed him criticizing Trump and his false claims of a stolen election.
Until recently, Murdoch, 92, served as chairman of Fox News Corp. (FNC) before handing control over to his eldest son. (RELATED: The End Of An Era: Rupert Murdoch Steps Down)
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