Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox Corporation, wrote to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott on Jan. 20, 2021 that he believed outgoing President Donald Trump pushing claims that the 2020 election was stolen was “pretty much a crime” that led directly to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob seeking to stop the certification of the election.

“The more I think about McConnell’s remarks or complaint the more I agree,” Murdoch wrote, apparently referencing Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) strong condemnation of Trump following Jan. 6.

“Trump insisting on the election being stolen and convincing 25% of Americans was a huge disservice to the country. Pretty much a crime. Inevitable it blew up Jan 6th,” Murdoch continued, adding:

Best we don’t mention his name unless essential and certainly don’t support him. We have to respect people of principle and if it comes to the Senate don’t take sides.

I know he is being over demonized, but he brought it on himself.

The bombshell email was made public on Wednesday as it was included in slides presented during a court hearing by lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems, which is suing Fox News for $1.6 billion alleging defamation. The voting technology company alleges the network knowingly aired election lies and conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election — falsely implicating Dominion.

Fox News pushed back on the new revelations in a statement to Mediaite: “These documents once again demonstrate Dominion’s continued reliance on cherry-picked quotes without context to generate headlines in order to distract from the facts of this case. The foundational right to a free press is at stake and we will continue to fiercely advocate for the First Amendment in protecting the role of news organizations to cover the news.”

“Executives at all levels of Fox — both (Fox News Network) and (Fox Corporation) — knowingly opened Fox’s airwaves to false conspiracy theories about Dominion,” Dominion wrote in the unsealed filing Monday. A five-week trial is currently scheduled to begin on April 17.

Parts of Murdoch’s deposition were also included in the slides, including Murdoch confirming he had asked Scott to ban Trump from the network:

Q. In fact, you talked to Ms. Scott and said, “No more Trump appearances on the network.”?
A. At some time, I certainly said that.

An additional slide, showed Murdoch explicitly stating he did not believe any of Trump’s claims regarding 2020 election fraud, which were at times parroted on Fox News:

Q. It is fair to say you seriously doubted any claim of massive election fraud?
A. Oh, yes.
Q. And you seriously doubted it from the very beginning? …
A. Yes. I mean, we thought everything was on the up-and-up. I think that was shown when we announced Arizona.

Fox News has argued in previous statements that the voting technology company’s lawsuit “has always been more about what will generate headlines than what can withstand legal and factual scrutiny as illustrated by them now being forced to slash their fanciful damages demand by more than half a billion dollars after their own expert debunked its implausible claims.”

The post ‘Pretty Much a Crime’: Murdoch Blamed Trump Directly For Jan. 6 Riot in Newly Released Emails first appeared on Mediaite.

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