Cnn
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The Pro-Trump Newsmax channel broadcast the Dominion voting systems, wrongly accusing the company of fueling the 2020 presidential election, a Delaware judge ruled on Wednesday.
But it will be up to a jury to decide whether Newsmax has intentionally coated with “real wickedness” and has to pay millions of dollars in damages.
The judge of the Superior Court of Delaware, Eric Davis, made several preliminary key decisions in favor of Dominion, a few weeks before a trial before jury which should start on April 28.
An outside regulations are always possible. This is how the similar Dominion trial against Fox News ended in 2023, with a record agreement of $ 787 million.
As he did in the Fox News case, Davis ruled that all the allegations that Dominion had committed massive electoral fraud in 2020 was false. He also concluded that these allegations were not presented on Newsmax as “pure opinion” questions of hosts or guests, which would have given them more protections under the first amendment.
The conclusions of the judge according to which all the programs linked to the newsmax elections in the trial were defamatory is a victory for Dominion ‘, but that does not mean that Newsmax was deemed responsible for the violation of defamation laws. This question will go to the jury.
“We are satisfied with the in-depth decision of the Court,” said a spokesperson for Dominion.
The right -wing network denies the reprehensible acts and has repeatedly stressed that it led a “clarification” segment in December 2020, and published an online article, saying that it had no evidence that Dominion manipulated the votes.
“Newsmax fairly covered the two parties of the electoral dispute in 2020,” said a newsmax spokesperson in a statement. “At no time did he broadcast Dominion. This case represents a serious threat to freedom of expression and a free press and Newsmax will defend itself vigorously at the trial. ”
Overall, the decisions increase the chances that Newsmax feels obliged to settle the case instead of riding his dice with a jury which could grant significant damage to domination. The voting technology company requires more than a billion dollars, which Newsmax lawyers argued that it is a massively inflated figure detached from actual losses.
The case stems from false allegations on the air of Newsmax hosts and guests that Dominion experienced a collus with Democratic agents to manipulate millions of votes in 2020, overthrowing the votes of President Donald Trump in order to elect the candidate Joe Biden.
Newsmax, led by Trump Ally Chris Ruddy, launched his first public offer last week. If a test occurs, Ruddy and some of the network’s television hosts, such as Greg Kelly and Chris Salcedo, should testify. Newsmax agreed in September to pay $ 40 million to set a smartmatic trial, another voting company that was also coated.
This story has been updated with additional details and Newsmax comments.
