Fox News was at the center of a $1.6B defamation trial leveled at them by Dominion, a voting systems company. The explosive lawsuit revealed deep secrets about the company and the true thoughts and feelings of its executives and hosts. Dominion, a voting systems company filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox in March of 2021. They claimed that through Fox News coverage of the 2020 election and its aftermath, they “endorsed, repeated, and broadcast a series of verifiably false yet devastating lies about Dominion.” After the 2020 election, Fox News continued to invite guests who believed and propelled the myth that the election was rigged and stolen from Trump. One of the common guests was Sidney Powell, Trump’s attorney who made broad claims of voting and election fraud. In these segments, they frequently targeted Dominion and its election technology.As part of the lawsuit, records of texts and emails, between Fox News executives and hosts were unsealed, showing that many of them did not believe in the content of the newscasts. On Nov. 6, media mogul and owner of Fox News, Rupert Murdoch emailed Suzanne Scott, the CEO of Fox News saying “ has got to get some real evidence!” In another text exchange unsealed in the documents, host Laura Ingram messaged host Tucker Carlson saying “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy .” Carlson also texted host Sean Hannity regarding one of their colleagues who had publicly fact-checked Trump's election lies saying “Please get her fired. Seriously ... what the (expletive)? I'm actually shocked ... It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It's measurably hurting the company.” These are just a few of the messages and insights pulled from the depositions and documents over the course of the trial. Dominion claimed the difference between the personal exchanges of Fox News staff and their on-air coverage of the election and their company were pushed because they were good for Fox’s viewership and business. Fox however contended that the exchanges were cherry-picked from the documents and that the trial was about freedom of speech and the press. The Delaware superior judge presiding over the case, Eric. M Davis made several critical decisions, mostly in favor of Dominion prior to trial. In March, he released a statement saying “It is CRYSTAL clear that none of the statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true.” A few weeks later, the judge expressed concern that Fox lawyers possibly withheld evidence, saying “I am very concerned… that there have been misrepresentations to the court. This is very serious.” He then sanctioned Fox, allowing Dominion to conduct further depositions and appointed a special master to investigate further. Moments before the trial was set to begin on April 18, Davis announced that a settlement had been reached in the case. "The parties have resolved their case," Davis said."Your presence here... was extremely important. And without you, the parties would not have been able to resolve their situation," the judge told the jurors, before dismissing them.