Trump urges Murdoch to embrace false 2020 election claims in Dominion trial

Former President Trump is urging Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox Corp., to embrace his false allegations of voter fraud if the media mogul is to give testimony during a jury trial in the defamation lawsuit facing Fox News this week.

“Fox News is in big trouble if they do not expose the truth on cheating in the 2020 election,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social early Monday morning. “They should do what’s right for America. When Rupert Murdoch says that there was no cheating in light of the massive proof that was there, it is ridiculous and very harmful to the fox case. Perhaps he should say that ‘he just didn’t know,’ but that is hard to believe. Rupert, just tell the truth and good things will happen. The election of 2020 was rigged and stollen…you know it, & so does everyone else!”

Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox for what it says was knowingly airing false claims about its software being promoted by Trump and his allies in the days and weeks following the 2020 election. Fox has defended itself on First Amendment grounds and has unsuccessfully sought to have the case dismissed.

Depositions given to Dominion’s lawyers and private communications from around the time of the election unearthed by Dominion’s process of legal discovery show Murdoch and other top leaders at Fox throwing cold water on Trump’s claims about the election and musing about distancing the network from the former president and his rhetoric.

A judge in Delaware overseeing this week’s trial indicated earlier this month he would stop Dominion’s lawyers from calling Murdoch, 92, as a live-in person witness during the trial.

Opening arguments were slated to begin Monday, but Judge Eric Davis announced late Sunday the trial would be delayed by 24 hours, amid widely reported settlement talks between Fox and Dominion.

Trump has grown increasingly critical of Fox in recent months, mainly over its coverage of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who is expected to challenge him for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.