Fox defamation trial delayed amid settlement talks

Fox host Tucker Carlson is expected to testify alongside other Fox hosts and the network's chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch

A long-awaited defamation case being brought by a voting technology firm against Fox News has been delayed by a day and is now due to start on Tuesday.

Dominion Voting Systems is suing the TV network for $1.6bn, claiming it knowingly spread lies about its voting machines after the 2020 election.

The judge ordering the 24-hour postponement gave no reason but US media report Fox News is seeking to settle the case.

The trial will hear from star names.

Fox hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Maria Bartiromo are expected to testify alongside the network's chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch.

In a statement on Sunday evening, Delaware Superior Court judge Eric Davis said only that he would announce at 9am local time Monday (1400bst) that the start of the trial would be delayed by 24 hours.

Citing two sources with knowledge of the situation, the Washington Post has reported that Fox and Dominion representatives were scheduled to meet on Monday to see if they could come to a last-minute deal before the trial begins.

The BBC has reached out to Fox and Dominion for comment.

In court on Monday morning, Judge Davis said that the delay "is not unusual" and that "things happen".

He declined to comment further, telling the packed courtroom that "this is not a press conference. I don't do that".

The two sides had previously attempted - and failed - to come to an agreement in December 2022.

A short time after the judge's comments in the court, a truck drove by the courthouse with an LED screen with a message claiming Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch knew it was "all lies".

A settlement in the case would allow Fox to avoid having its executives and on-air personalities testify in an open court.

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If the case does go to trial, jurors will have to determine whether Fox acted with "actual malice" through its coverage of Dominion, whose voting machines were used in 28 US states during the election.

As the outgoing president, Mr Trump had attacked the voting machine company, claiming it rigged the election to favour winner Joe Biden.

The court has already ruled that the allegations against Dominion have been proven false.

Text messages, emails and sworn depositions show that many at Fox, ranging from producers and journalists to high-level executives, questioned the network's coverage of Dominion during the election.

Mr Carlson, for example, referred to many of the theories about Dominion as "absurd" and "insane".

Fox has claimed that its journalists and commentators were reporting on fraud allegations, rather than endorsing them. The company's lawyers have argued that this sort of coverage is protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution which guarantees freedom of expression and the press.

Additionally, Fox has said that Dominion's lawsuit "mischaracterizes the facts by cherry-picking soundbites, omitting key context, and mischaracterizing the record".

In a post on his Truth Social social media platform, Donald Trump said that "if Fox would finally admit there was large scale cheating & irregularities in the 2020 election, which would be a good thing for them & for America, the case against them, which should not have existed at all, would be greatly weakened."

Dominion has dismissed these arguments, and said in a previous statement that "the First Amendment does not shield broadcasters that knowingly or recklessly spread lies".