Latest Update: As of July 11, 2026, no trial date has been set in the Smartmatic v. Fox Corp. case. The most recent confirmed court action came on May 8, 2026, when a New York appellate court issued a split ruling: it gave Fox limited additional discovery into how a federal bribery indictment against Smartmatic executives affected the company’s business, but rejected Fox’s bid to pause the case or vacate the trial-ready note of issue. The case remains on track toward trial in Manhattan, with no new hearing date publicly scheduled since the December 2, 2025 summary judgment arguments.
Last updated: July 2026
Fox News has already paid $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems. That was the largest known media defamation settlement in U.S. history. And it’s not over. The network still faces a $2.7 billion active lawsuit from Smartmatic as of 2026, with a trial potentially on the horizon.
If you’re trying to make sense of all the Fox News lawsuits, you’re not alone. The cases involve voting machines, election lies, fired hosts, internal text messages, and a media empire fighting to protect itself from legal ruin.
This guide breaks down every major Fox News lawsuit. You’ll learn who sued them, why, what was paid, what’s still pending, and what these cases mean for the future of cable news.
What Is the Fox News Lawsuit Actually About?
The core Fox News lawsuit is a defamation dispute rooted in the 2020 presidential election. Two voting technology companies, Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, sued Fox News for broadcasting false claims that their machines rigged the election against Donald Trump.
The claims aired on Fox programs between November 2020 and January 2021. Hosts including Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Pirro, and Sean Hannity either made or amplified those claims. Their guests, including Trump attorneys Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, pushed the election fraud narrative repeatedly.
Internal evidence revealed in court later showed that Fox executives and hosts privately disbelieved the claims they were broadcasting. That gap between private doubt and public broadcast became the heart of both lawsuits.
| Lawsuit | Plaintiff | Amount Sought | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dominion v. Fox News | Dominion Voting Systems | $1.6 billion | Settled for $787.5M (April 2023) |
| Smartmatic v. Fox Corp. | Smartmatic | $2.7 billion | Active, heading toward trial (2026) |
| Ray Epps v. Fox News | Ray Epps | Unspecified | Dismissed (November 2024) |
| Abby Grossberg v. Fox News | Abby Grossberg | Unspecified | Settled for $12 million (2023) |
Key Takeaway: The Fox News lawsuits are primarily defamation claims tied to false election fraud claims aired after the 2020 presidential election.
Fox News Lawsuit Settlement: The Dominion Deal Explained
The Fox News lawsuit settlement with Dominion Voting Systems ended on April 18, 2023, the day opening statements were supposed to begin. Fox agreed to pay $787.5 million. It is the largest media defamation settlement ever recorded in the United States.
Fox did not apologize. The network released a statement acknowledging only “the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.” That carefully worded non-apology drew significant criticism.
The settlement came after Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric M. Davis ruled, in a summary judgment on March 31, 2023, that none of the Fox News statements about Dominion were true. A trial to decide whether Fox acted with “actual malice” was then set for April 17. Fox settled hours before it was supposed to begin.
| Settlement Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Settlement Date | April 18, 2023 |
| Amount Paid | $787.5 million |
| Court | Delaware Superior Court |
| Judge | Eric M. Davis |
| Did Fox Apologize? | No |
| Legal Record | Largest known U.S. media defamation settlement |
How Much Did Fox News Pay Dominion?
Fox News paid $787.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems to settle the defamation lawsuit. That figure came from the original $1.6 billion Dominion sought when it filed its lawsuit in March 2021.
The final settlement amount was roughly half the original claim. Legal experts noted that Fox faced significant risk at trial. The judge had already ruled the statements were false.
Dominion’s lawsuit accused several Fox programs of broadcasting false statements that Dominion’s voting machines had been rigged to steal the 2020 election from Trump. Fox’s defense argued it was covering newsworthy claims made by the sitting president and his lawyers.
Key fact: At $787.5 million, this settlement eclipsed any previous U.S. media defamation payout. For comparison, it would take roughly 30 years of average American household income to equal that figure.
Key Takeaway: Fox paid Dominion $787.5 million to avoid a trial that the judge’s pre-trial ruling strongly suggested Fox would lose.
Fox News Smartmatic Lawsuit: The $2.7 Billion Case Still Active in 2026
The Smartmatic lawsuit against Fox News is the biggest active Fox News lawsuit in 2026. Smartmatic is seeking $2.7 billion in damages. The case is working through New York State Supreme Court under Judge David B. Cohen.
Smartmatic filed its suit in February 2021, actually before Dominion filed its case. The Dominion matter moved faster through Delaware’s streamlined court system. Smartmatic’s New York case has been slower but relentless.
Smartmatic’s technology was used in only one U.S. jurisdiction in 2020: Los Angeles County. Yet Fox hosts and guests repeatedly claimed Smartmatic machines had been used across multiple swing states to flip votes. Those claims were false.
| Smartmatic Case Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Filing Date | February 2021 |
| Court | New York State Supreme Court |
| Judge | David B. Cohen |
| Amount Sought | $2.7 billion |
| Fox Corp. Dismissal Attempt | Rejected by NY appellate court, January 2025 |
| Key Defendants | Fox Corp., Fox News, Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs, Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani |
Smartmatic vs Fox News: Where Does the Trial Stand Right Now?
As of early 2026, the Smartmatic case is in pre-trial proceedings. Both sides filed dueling motions for summary judgment in late 2025. A New York judge heard arguments on December 2, 2025. No ruling has been issued yet.
Smartmatic’s lead attorney J. Erik Connolly told the court during that hearing that 28 fact witnesses admitted they had no evidence to support the allegations made against Smartmatic. Fox’s legal team argued its stars genuinely believed Trump could have been cheated and were covering newsworthy claims.
Fox has also tried multiple delays. The network sought to pause the case after Smartmatic executives faced a federal bribery indictment in a separate Philippines-related matter. The judge denied that stay request in November 2025, ruling it would cause “undue delay.”
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman publicly revealed in mid-2025 that he had invested $25 million to fund Smartmatic’s litigation. Fox then filed a petition seeking to depose Hoffman, a move that legal observers viewed as an attempt to discourage further funding.
Key Takeaway: The Smartmatic trial has not yet been scheduled but could begin in 2026, with both sides currently fighting over summary judgment.
What Is Fox News Being Sued For Across All Cases?
Fox News has faced lawsuits on several different grounds across multiple cases since 2020. The most prominent claims fall into these categories:
- Defamation: Broadcasting false statements about Dominion and Smartmatic’s roles in the 2020 election (Dominion case, settled; Smartmatic case, ongoing)
- Defamation and false light: Falsely portraying Ray Epps as a government agent who instigated the January 6 Capitol attack (dismissed November 2024)
- Employment discrimination and witness tampering: Former Fox producer Abby Grossberg alleged she was pressured to give misleading testimony in the Dominion case (settled for $12 million in 2023)
- Defamation from Venezuelan businessman Majed Khalil: Sued Fox, Lou Dobbs, and Sidney Powell for $250 million over false claims he rigged voting machines (settled confidentially in April 2023)
| Case Type | Allegation | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Defamation (Dominion) | False election fraud claims | Settled: $787.5M |
| Defamation (Smartmatic) | False election fraud claims | Active |
| Defamation (Ray Epps) | False FBI agent claims | Dismissed |
| Defamation (Majed Khalil) | False rigging claims | Settled confidentially |
| Employment/Discrimination (Grossberg) | Witness tampering, sexism | Settled: $12M |
Fox News Defamation Lawsuit Explained: What “Defamation” Actually Means Here
Defamation, in its simplest form, means making false statements about someone that damage their reputation. In these Fox News cases, “defamation” refers to broadcasting false claims about voting companies that caused serious real-world harm to those companies.
For a media company to be found liable for defamation against a public or private company, courts look for specific elements. The statements must be false. They must have been made with at least negligence, and in these cases, the higher “actual malice” standard applies.
Think of it this way. If a friend spreads a false rumor about your business and it costs you clients, that’s the everyday version of defamation. Fox broadcasting false claims to millions of viewers that Smartmatic and Dominion rigged a presidential election is the same concept at a catastrophic scale.
Key defamation elements in these cases:
- False statements of fact (not opinion)
- Publication to a third party (broadcast to millions)
- Identification of the plaintiff (companies named repeatedly on air)
- Damages (lost contracts, destroyed reputation, death threats to employees)
Ray Epps Fox News Lawsuit: Filed, Fought, and Dismissed
Ray Epps sued Fox News for defamation in July 2023. His case alleged that Tucker Carlson and Fox News falsely portrayed him as an undercover FBI agent who helped instigate the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack. The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge in November 2024.
Epps was a Trump-supporting former Marine from Arizona. He was filmed near the Capitol on January 5 and 6, 2021. Carlson devoted more than two dozen segments to Epps, presenting the claim that he was a government informant as fact, according to the lawsuit.
The result was catastrophic for Epps. He and his wife received death threats. They were forced to sell their Arizona ranch, where they ran a successful wedding venue business. They relocated to a 350-square-foot RV in Utah.
Delaware federal judge Jennifer L. Hall dismissed the case in November 2024 on the grounds that Epps had failed to establish that Fox acted with malice when it speculated about his potential federal ties. Fox News issued a statement citing the Epps dismissal alongside other recently dismissed defamation cases.
Key Takeaway: Despite Epps’ compelling personal story of harm, his lawsuit failed because courts require proof of “actual malice” for defamation against media defendants covering matters of public concern.
The Abby Grossberg Fox News Settlement
Abby Grossberg was a Fox News producer who filed a lawsuit against the network in March 2023. She alleged that Fox attorneys had pressured her to give misleading testimony in the Dominion case and that she had experienced a hostile work environment involving sexism.
Fox settled the Grossberg lawsuit for $12 million in 2023. Her case added a layer of internal credibility to the broader narrative that Fox’s legal troubles ran deeper than its on-air content.
Grossberg’s allegations were significant because they directly implicated Fox’s legal strategy, not just its editorial decisions. The Dominion settlement came in the same month as the Grossberg settlement, making April 2023 the most legally turbulent single month in Fox’s history.
Key facts from the Grossberg case:
- Filed: March 2023
- Allegation: Witness pressure in Dominion case and hostile work environment
- Settlement: $12 million
- Significance: First case to allege Fox’s legal team itself engaged in misconduct during the Dominion litigation
Tucker Carlson’s Role in Fox News Lawsuits
Tucker Carlson was the central figure in at least two major Fox News lawsuits: the Ray Epps case and the Smartmatic and Dominion cases. His firing from Fox in April 2023 came weeks after the Dominion settlement.
In the Dominion case, Carlson’s private text messages revealed that he privately despised Trump and expressed disbelief in the election fraud claims he was platforming. In one text, he wrote that watching Trump’s lawyers push fraud claims was “so… unbelievably offensive.”
In the Ray Epps case, Carlson hosted Epps-focused segments more than two dozen times, according to the lawsuit. He framed Epps as a probable federal agent without presenting a single piece of supporting evidence. The Epps lawsuit was dismissed, but Carlson’s conduct was central to it.
Fox has maintained that Carlson’s April 2023 firing was related to the Abby Grossberg lawsuit’s allegations about his show’s toxic work environment. Not the Dominion settlement. The true reasons have never been formally confirmed.
| Carlson’s Role | Detail |
|---|---|
| Dominion Case | Private texts showed he disbelieved fraud claims he aired |
| Smartmatic Case | Named as host who promoted false election claims |
| Ray Epps Case | Devoted 24+ segments to falsely linking Epps to FBI |
| Firing Date | April 24, 2023 (days after Dominion settlement) |
What Is the “Actual Malice” Standard and Why Does It Matter?
“Actual malice” is the legal threshold a plaintiff must meet to win a defamation case against a media defendant in the United States. It means the defendant either knew the statement was false or acted with reckless disregard for whether it was true or false.
This standard was established by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1964 case New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. It sets a high bar specifically to protect press freedom. Without it, news organizations could face endless lawsuits simply for covering controversial claims.
The reason these Fox News cases are so compelling legally is what the internal evidence shows. Fox executives and hosts privately acknowledged the election fraud claims were dubious or outright false. They aired those claims anyway. That private knowledge paired with public broadcasting is exactly what “actual malice” is designed to capture.
- Dominion result: Judge Davis ruled in summary judgment that the statements about Dominion were false. A trial was ordered to determine actual malice. Fox settled before that trial began.
- Smartmatic argument: Smartmatic’s legal team told the court that 28 fact witnesses admitted they had no evidence to support any of the claims made about Smartmatic on air.
Key Takeaway: The “actual malice” standard is the linchpin of both cases. Internal Fox messages showing private disbelief while publicly broadcasting false claims is the strongest possible evidence of actual malice.
Fox News First Amendment Defense: Does It Hold Up?
Fox News has consistently argued that its coverage of 2020 election fraud claims was protected by the First Amendment. The network says it was covering newsworthy claims made by a sitting president and his legal team, not endorsing those claims as truth.
This defense has had limited success. In the Dominion case, Judge Davis ruled that the First Amendment does not protect the deliberate broadcasting of known falsehoods. Fox settled before the malice trial could determine how broadly that ruling would apply.
In the Smartmatic case, Fox has repeated its First Amendment argument. The New York courts have so far declined to dismiss the case, and the appellate court in January 2025 specifically allowed Smartmatic’s claims to move forward against both Fox News and its parent company Fox Corporation.
Courts have consistently drawn a line between covering someone’s claims (protected) and endorsing those claims as fact while privately knowing they’re false (potentially not protected). Fox is straddling that line in both its defense strategy and its legal exposure.
Fox News Total Legal Costs: What Has This All Cost?
Fox News and Fox Corporation have paid or face a staggering total in legal costs and settlements. Adding up confirmed settlements alone:
| Settlement/Cost | Amount |
|---|---|
| Dominion Voting Systems settlement | $787.5 million |
| Abby Grossberg settlement | $12 million |
| Majed Khalil settlement | Confidential (estimated in tens of millions) |
| Seth Rich family settlement (2020) | Undisclosed |
| Smartmatic potential exposure | Up to $2.7 billion (pending) |
| Legal fees across all cases | Estimated hundreds of millions |
The confirmed cash paid out to Dominion alone exceeds $799.5 million when including the Grossberg settlement. If Smartmatic prevails, Fox’s total exposure could reach or exceed $3.5 billion when legal fees are factored in.
For context: Fox Corporation reported annual revenue of roughly $14 billion. The Dominion settlement alone equaled more than five percent of one full year’s revenue. Losing Smartmatic would hit far harder.
Key Takeaway: Fox News has already paid close to $800 million in confirmed settlements, with potential Smartmatic exposure pushing total legal costs past $3.5 billion.
Fox News Lawsuit Timeline: From 2020 to Today
Understanding the Fox News lawsuits requires knowing the sequence of events. Here’s the full timeline:
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| November 2020 | Fox hosts begin airing election fraud claims about Dominion and Smartmatic |
| February 2021 | Smartmatic files $2.7B defamation lawsuit against Fox |
| March 2021 | Dominion files $1.6B defamation lawsuit against Fox |
| March 2023 | Abby Grossberg files lawsuit; Rupert Murdoch deposed |
| March 31, 2023 | Delaware judge rules Dominion statements were false; trial ordered |
| April 18, 2023 | Fox settles Dominion case for $787.5 million |
| April 2023 | Fox settles Majed Khalil lawsuit confidentially |
| April 2023 | Fox settles Grossberg lawsuit for $12 million |
| April 24, 2023 | Tucker Carlson fired from Fox News |
| July 2023 | Ray Epps files defamation lawsuit |
| January 2024 | NY court denies Fox Corp motion to dismiss Smartmatic |
| January 2025 | NY appellate court rejects Fox’s appeal to dismiss Smartmatic |
| December 2, 2025 | Summary judgment hearing in Smartmatic case |
| January 2026 | Fox seeks to depose Reid Hoffman, Smartmatic’s litigation funder |
| 2026 (pending) | Smartmatic trial possible, no date yet confirmed |
What Happens If Fox News Loses the Smartmatic Case?
If Fox News loses the Smartmatic case at trial, it could face up to $2.7 billion in damages. That would be more than three times the Dominion settlement. It would be the largest media defamation verdict in U.S. history.
But “losing” can mean different things. Fox could face a full jury verdict of $2.7 billion. The judge could award a partial amount. Fox could also settle, as it did with Dominion, at any point before or during trial.
Fox’s pattern in high-stakes litigation is revealing. The company fought Dominion aggressively for two years, then settled hours before opening statements. Legal observers expect the same playbook in Smartmatic. The question is what settlement number both sides would accept.
Smartmatic’s case differs from Dominion’s in one key way. Its technology was used in only one U.S. county in 2020. Fox has argued this limits the scope of damages. Smartmatic counters that Fox’s false claims destroyed its ability to win international contracts worth billions.
Possible outcomes:
- Trial verdict in Smartmatic’s favor: Up to $2.7 billion
- Fox settles before trial begins: Likely reduced figure, possibly $500M to $1B+
- Judge grants Fox summary judgment: Smartmatic gets nothing
- Mixed ruling: Some claims proceed to trial, others dismissed
Frequently Asked Questions
How much did Fox News pay in the Dominion lawsuit settlement?
Fox News paid $787.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems in April 2023. This is the largest known media defamation settlement in U.S. history. Fox did not issue a formal apology as part of the deal.
Is the Fox News Smartmatic lawsuit still active in 2026?
Yes. The Smartmatic lawsuit against Fox News is active as of 2026. A summary judgment hearing was held in December 2025, with no ruling yet issued. If no settlement is reached, a trial could begin in 2026.
What was the Fox News lawsuit actually about?
The Fox News lawsuits center on false claims broadcast after the 2020 election that voting companies Dominion and Smartmatic rigged the election against Trump. Internal evidence showed Fox hosts privately disbelieved those claims while airing them to viewers. Courts found this gap between private knowledge and public broadcast to be legally significant.
Was Ray Epps successful in his lawsuit against Fox News?
No. Ray Epps’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News was dismissed by a federal judge in November 2024. The judge ruled that Epps had not established that Fox acted with the required level of malice. Despite the dismissal, Epps’ lawsuit produced significant public documentation of Tucker Carlson’s claims against him.
What does “actual malice” mean in the Fox News defamation cases?
“Actual malice” means that a publisher either knew a statement was false or acted with reckless disregard for whether it was true. It’s the legal standard plaintiffs must meet to win defamation cases against media companies in the U.S. In the Fox cases, internal text messages showing hosts privately doubted the claims they were broadcasting became key evidence toward proving actual malice.
The Fox News legal saga is one of the most consequential media law stories in decades.
The Dominion settlement closed a chapter. But the Smartmatic case is still open, still expensive, and still capable of producing a verdict that would reshape how cable news operates.
Check whether the Smartmatic summary judgment ruling has been issued. Track whether Fox settles before a trial date is locked in. The next development in this case could come at any time.
Stay current. The biggest financial reckoning in Fox’s history may still be ahead.
