Fox News has issued a new court filing arguing that Dominion Voting Systems lacks evidence to establish their claim to $1.6 billion in damages over the network’s proliferation of 2020 election conspiracy theories.

Reuters reports that Fox News filed a counterclaim in Delaware Superior Court, a new step in the network’s legal battle against Dominion’s defamation case. In the counterclaim, Fox argues that Dominion’s $1.6 billion lawsuit has “‘no connection’ to its value ‘or any supposed injury it suffered'” after Fox News amplified conspiratorial claims that Dominion’s voting machines helped swing the election away from former President Donald Trump. Fox further argued that Dominion remains financially sound — generating annual revenues approaching $100 million even after the election-rigging claims. Dominion declined Reuters’ request for comment.

The legal battle between Fox News and Dominion reached a new critical mass after the release of leaked emails and text messages from among the network’s top brass and most prominent figures. The contents offered several shocking revelations about the network’s conduct while they were giving breath to the unsubstantiated conspiracies about Dominion.

One of the biggest shockers was an email in which Fox News Chairman Rupert Murdoch emailed CEO Suzanne Scott and called for Fox to help Trump “any way we can.” Another big reveal was a collection of text messages showing that Tucker Carlson was demanding that Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich be fired for fact-checking Trump’s election lies. Other internal communications show that Fox higher-ups knew Team Trump’s election fraud claims were bogus, but still allowed them on air while discussing which of their opinion hosts were “crazy.”

Fox has described Dominion’s lawsuit as an attack on free press and as an attempt by the company’s backers to enrich themselves with their $1.6 billion damages claim.

“There will be a lot of noise and confusion generated by Dominion and their opportunistic private equity owners, but the core of this case remains about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution and protected by New York Times v. Sullivan,” the network said in a previous statement to Mediaite. A Fox News spokesperson added, “Dominion has mischaracterized the record, cherry-picked quotes stripped of key context, and spilled considerable ink on facts that are irrelevant under black-letter principles of defamation law.”

The post Fox News Files Counterclaim in Dominion Suit Alleging Company Can’t Prove ‘Staggering’ $1.6 Billion Damages first appeared on Mediaite.

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