Lachlan Murdoch to be deposed by Dominion lawyers as part of lawsuit against Fox News

Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch is set to be deposed early next week by lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems as part of the company’s defamation lawsuit against the cable news giant.

Murdoch, the eldest son of Fox News owner and founder Rupert Murdoch, is scheduled to face questions from Dominion’s lawyers on Monday in Los Angeles, according to multiple reports, and will be the highest-ranking official at Fox to be deposed by Dominion.

A number of top Fox News personalities including Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson have also faced questions from Dominion’s lawyers this year in connection with the lawsuit, which was filed early in 2021 and seeks more than $1 billion in damages.

In the weeks and months that followed the 2020 presidential election, several associates and allies of then-President Trump made a number of appearances in the media, including on Fox News, the most-watched cable channel in the country, during which they alleged without evidence that Dominion was engaged in voter fraud that rigged the election against the former president.

Dominion’s suit claims the Murdochs and other leaders at Fox “decided to promote former President Trump’s narrative after Trump’s condemnation of Fox damaged its stock and viewership.”

Fox has moved to have the case dismissed on First Amendment grounds.

“We are confident we will prevail as freedom of the press is foundational to our democracy and must be protected, in addition to the damages claims being outrageous, unsupported, and not rooted in sound financial analysis, serving as nothing more than a flagrant attempt to deter our journalists from doing their jobs,” Fox New said in a recent statement regarding the case.

In June, a judge in Delaware denied Fox’s motion to have the case thrown out on First Amendment grounds, and ruled Dominion “adequately states a claim for defamation per se against Fox Corporation based on its theory of direct liability.”

In an interview with 60 Minutes that aired in October, Dominion CEO John Poulos claimed Fox officials “knew the truth” that claims about the company being made by Trump and his associates were false but decided to air them anyway.

The case is expected to head to a jury trial early next year.