Dominion Voting Systems filed a lawsuit in 2021 against Fox News, which, as its parent company, Rupert Murdoch-in possession News Corp NWSAand claimed the news organization had false information about the company’s voting machines and its role in the US Presidential Election 2020.

What happened: The legal battle took a new turn when Dominion presented evidence on Thursday that suggested some Fox News anchors and executives privately acknowledged the false or baseless nature of the stolen voting claims promoted by donald trump and his team.

According to the Dominion submissionEvidence shows Fox News anchors Sean Hannity And Tucker Carlsonamong other things, understood that the allegations of voter fraud were unfounded but declined to say so publicly.

Apparently they feared that this would alienate Trump and his supporters and hurt the station’s ratings.

Dominion said the motive behind the false narratives was Fox’s declining viewership after they correctly called Arizona Joe Bidenwhich caused a backlash from her audience.

Private text messages have surfaced from Fox News’ top journalists and anchors, and even Murdoch himself, acknowledging the problems.

Carlson texted one of his producers, “There wasn’t enough cheating to change the outcome of the election,” and later said so Sydney Powellone of Trump’s lawyers, “lies” despite Fox News being responsible for misleading the public about significant voter fraud.

Fox responded to the Say lawsuit in 2021“Fox News Media is proud of our 2020 election coverage, which stands in the highest tradition of American journalism, and we will vigorously defend this baseless lawsuit in court.”

In early 2020, Murdoch sent an email to staff with the subject “Watch Guiliani!” when Fox aired a press conference where Rudy Guiliani and Powell shot Dominion. “Really crazy stuff. And harmful,” Murdoch wrote.

Why it matters: Fox wrote in his summary judgment request Thursday: “Explanations…