Former United States Attorney General William Barr is facing a subpoena as part of an ongoing 2020 election defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News.
The voting machine company filed to subpoena former President Donald Trump's ex-AG last week, the latest sign that the company's lawsuits against those who pushed false claims of election fraud may be gathering steam.
Defamation Lawsuit Against Fox News
Dominion also recently issued an additional string of subpoenas to officials, including Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who Trump famously called after the 2020 election. The former president allegedly asked the official to help him "find" the exact number of votes he needed to win the state of Georgia.
In the voting machine company's $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed against Fox News last March, it alleges that the media outlet pushed false accusations that the voting company had rigged the 2020 election in order to make a profit and boost ratings.
"Fox sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process," the company said in its complaint. Fox News responded by saying that it would "vigorously" defend itself against the "baseless lawsuit in court," as per ABC News.
During the first public hearing of the House Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot, Barr said in a clip that the baseless allegations that Dominion machines switched votes from Joe Biden to Trump were "complete nonsense" and "amongst the most disturbing."
The former attorney general said that the allegations were "crazy" and that they were only a waste of time. The conspiracy theories against Dominion were repeatedly pushed by the former president and his allies.
According to The Hill, Dominion's legal team also argued that Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch decided to "promote former President Trump's narrative after Trump's condemnation of Fox damaged its stock and viewership."
Conspiracy Theories of Election Fraud
Last month, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric M. Davis denied a motion from Fox Corp. to dismiss the lawsuit. He wrote that the voting systems company "adequately states a claim for defamation per se against Fox Corporation based on its theory of direct liability."
The media outlet has moved to dismiss the case on First Amendment grounds, arguing in a recent statement that "limiting the ability of the press to report freely on the American election process stands in stark contrast to the liberties on which this nation was founded."
The situation comes as the House Select Committee continues to investigate the events before, during, and after the Jan. 6 insurrection and how deep Trump's involvement goes. They argued that the former president has consistently pushed the conspiracy theory of election fraud in order to gain support from his followers and try to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The panel has recently questioned Pat Cipollone, who served as White House counsel for Trump, asking him detailed questions on Friday regarding pardons, false election fraud claims, and the former president's pressure campaign against then-Vice President Mike Pence, the New York Times reported.
