At the absolute core of Dominion Voting Systems' high-stakes defamation lawsuit against Fox News are 20 specific broadcasts and social media posts. While public interest has largely gravitated toward high-profile depositions and eye-opening private text messages, these 20 distinct instances form the actual legal foundation of the case. Dominion argues that Fox knowingly promoted destructive lies during these segments, ultimately decimating the voting company's reputation.
According to the legal filing, all 20 statements occurred in a tight window between November 8, 2020, and January 26, 2021. The allegedly defamatory remarks were delivered through on-air commentary by Fox hosts Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs, and Maria Bartiromo; interviews with prominent pro-Trump election deniers Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and Mike Lindell; and several tweets published by Dobbs. The wild allegations fell into four broad categories: that Dominion orchestrated widespread election fraud, that it utilized algorithms to flip votes, that it maintained deep ties to Venezuela, and that politicians received financial kickbacks to implement the company's systems.
The judge overseeing the defamation trial has already ruled definitively on the accuracy of these claims. In a pre-trial ruling, the judge declared it is "CRYSTAL clear that none of the Statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true." At trial, the jury's primary responsibility will be to determine if these 20 statements were made with "actual malice"—a demanding legal standard requiring proof that Fox either knew the claims were false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth. Dominion is seeking $1.6 billion in damages along with punitive damages, a figure Fox has dismissed as wildly overblown. Fox has denied all wrongdoing, framing the lawsuit as a meritless assault on press freedoms and arguing that Dominion cannot meet the high bar required to prove defamation.
November 8, 2020: "Sunday Morning Futures"
The sequence of alleged defamation began on Maria Bartiromo's Sunday show. Bartiromo raised the issue of voting technology with guest Sidney Powell, saying, "Sidney, we talked about the Dominion software. I know that there were voting irregularities. Tell me about that." Powell responded: "That’s to put it mildly. The computer glitches could not and should not have happened at all. That is where the fraud took place where they were flipping votes in the computer system or adding votes that did not exist."
November 12, 2020: "Lou Dobbs Tonight"
On this broadcast, Rudy Giuliani introduced the conspiracy theory connecting the voting company to Venezuela. Giuliani asserted: "So, we’re using a foreign company that is owned by Venezuelans who are close to – were close to (Hugo) Chávez, are now close to (Nicolás) Maduro, have a history. They were founded as a company to fix elections, they have a terrible record, and they are extremely hackable."
November 13, 2020: "Lou Dobbs Tonight"
Host Lou Dobbs prompted Powell regarding the voting company's official response, asking, "Let’s start with Dominion, a straight out disavowal of any claim of fraud against the company, its software or machines. Your reaction." Powell replied: "Well, I can hardly wait to put forth all the evidence we have collected on Dominion, starting with the fact it was created to produce altered voting results in Venezuela for Hugo Chavez and then shipped internationally to manipulate votes for purchase in other countries, including this one." Powell then introduced the kickback allegation, adding, "We also need to look at and we’re beginning to collect evidence on the financial interests of some of the governors and Secretaries of State who actually bought into the Dominion Systems … to line their own pockets by getting a voting machine in that would either make sure their election was successful or they got money for their family from it." Dobbs validated her claims, stating, "Well, that’s straightforward. You’re going to have to be quick to go through and to produce that investigation and the results of it."
November 14, 2020: Lou Dobbs Quote-Tweet
Dobbs amplified the conspiracy theories on social media by quote-tweeting Giuliani, who had written: "Did you know a foreign company, DOMINION, was counting our vote in Michigan, Arizona and Georgia and other states." Dobbs added his own commentary: "Read all about Dominion and Smartmatic voting companies and you’ll soon understand how pervasive this Democrat electoral fraud is, and why there’s no way in the world the 2020 Presidential election was either free or fair. #MAGA @realDonaldTrump #AmericaFirst #Dobbs"
November 14, 2020: "Justice with Judge Jeanine"
On Jeanine Pirro's program, Powell repeated the Venezuelan origin story, claiming: "It was created for the express purpose of being able to alter votes and secure the reelection of Hugo Chavez and then Maduro. They’ve used it in Argentina. There is an American citizen who has exported it to other countries and it is one huge, huge criminal conspiracy that should be investigated by military intelligence for its national security implications." Pirro responded in agreement, saying, "Yes. And hopefully the Department of Justice, but who knows anymore."
November 15, 2020: "Fox & Friends Sunday"
Host Maria Bartiromo promoted the kickback allegations on air, stating: "Sidney Powell is also talking about potential kickbacks that government officials, who were asked to use Dominion, actually also enjoyed benefits to their families. We’re going to talk about that coming up as well."
November 15, 2020: "Sunday Morning Futures"
Later that same day, Bartiromo hosted Powell, who told viewers: "We have sworn witness testimony of why the software was designed. It was designed to rig elections … We have so much evidence, I feel like it’s coming in through a fire hose."
November 16, 2020: "Lou Dobbs Tonight"
Powell returned to Dobbs' show and claimed to have "stunning evidence from a firsthand witness, a high-ranking military officer, who was present when Smartmatic was designed." Reading from an affidavit, Powell claimed Smartmatic was "designed in a way that the system could change the vote of each voter without being detected." Powell also incorrectly claimed during the broadcast that Smartmatic owns Dominion.
November 18, 2020: "Lou Dobbs Tonight"
During an appearance on Dobbs' program, Giuliani continued to attack the voting company's alleged foreign ties, stating: "But I mean just the mere fact that we have a foreign country, we had this in a foreign country, done by friends of an enemy of the United States, Maduro, is outrageous and has to stop immediately."
November 19, 2020: "Lou Dobbs Tonight"
Powell made another appearance on Dobbs' show, claiming: "Let me put it this way, there are thousands of people in federal prisons on far less evidence of criminal conduct than we have already against the Smartmatic and Dominion Systems companies."
November 21, 2020: "Justice with Judge Jeanine"
Pirro summarized the claims made by Trump's legal team, telling her audience: "The President’s lawyers alleging a company called Dominion, which they say started in Venezuela with Cuban money, and with the assistance of Smartmatic software, a backdoor is capable of flipping votes."
November 24, 2020: "Lou Dobbs Tonight"
Powell told Dobbs: "We are just continuing to be inundated by evidence of all the frauds here and every manner and means of fraud you could possibly think of." Dobbs supported her claims, stating, "I think many Americans have given no thought to electoral fraud that would be perpetrated through electronic voting; that is, these machines, these electronic voting companies, including Dominion, prominently Dominion, at least in the suspicions of a lot of Americans."
November 30, 2020: "Lou Dobbs Tonight"
Powell escalated her allegations of vote-shaving on Dobbs' show, claiming: "Different states shaved different amounts of votes, or the system was set up to shave and flip different votes in different states. Some people were targeted as individual candidates. It’s really the most massive and historical egregious fraud the world has ever seen."
On Sean Hannity's primetime show, Powell alleged that "the machine ran an algorithm that shaved votes from Trump and awarded them to Biden." She added: "They used the machines to trash large batches of votes that should have been awarded to President Trump. And they used a machine to inject and add massive quantities of votes for Mr. Biden."
December 4, 2020: "Lou Dobbs Tonight"
Dobbs validated the conspiracy theories while interviewing Phil Waldron, a Trump supporter working with Powell to spread election claims. Dobbs said: "Dominion Voting Systems, you have described it with algorithms which were designed to be inaccurate rather than to be a secure system." He then asked Waldron, "Give us your sense of who is driving all of this."
December 10, 2020: Lou Dobbs Tweet and Document
Dobbs published a tweet calling the election a "cyber Pearl Harbor" and embedded a document. The document asserted: "We have technical presentations that prove there is an embedded controller in every Dominion machine, that allows an election supervisor to move votes from one candidate to another."
December 10, 2020: "Lou Dobbs Tonight"
The lawsuit identifies Dobbs' broadcast on this night as another key instance of defamation, continuing the "cyber Pearl Harbor" narrative on air.
December 10, 2020: Lou Dobbs Tweet and Powell Video
Dobbs also tweeted a video of a Powell interview that night, writing: "Cyber Pearl Harbor: @SidneyPowell1 reveals groundbreaking new evidence indicating our Presidential election came under massive cyber-attack orchestrated with the help of Dominion, Smartmatic, and foreign adversaries. #MAGA #AmericaFirst #Dobbs"
December 12, 2020: "Fox & Friends"
During a weekend broadcast hosted by Will Cain, Pete Hegseth, and Rachel Campos-Duffy, Giuliani appeared as a guest and claimed: "We have a machine, the Dominion machine, that’s as filled with holes as Swiss cheese and was developed to steal elections, and being used in the states that are involved."
January 26, 2021: "Tucker Carlson Tonight"
The final statement cited in the lawsuit occurred during an appearance by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell on Tucker Carlson's show. Lindell challenged critics, saying: "Every outlet in the country, they go, ‘Mike Lindell, there’s no evidence, and he’s making fraudulent statements.’ No. I have the evidence. I dare people to put it on. I dare Dominion to sue me because then it will get out faster. So, this is – you know, they don’t – they don’t want to talk about it."
