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Fox News is accused of helping to promote false claims that the voting-machine maker flipped millions of votes away from Trump. Murdoch’s testimony was disclosed by Dominion in its fight against a request by Fox to get a judge to throw out the lawsuit.

Rupert Murdoch and then US president Donald Trump embrace at a function in 2017.Credit:The New York Times

Documents in the case in Delaware State Court show Murdoch and other Fox executives believed Joe Biden fairly beat Donald Trump and that the results were not in doubt.

A five-week trial is scheduled to begin on April 17.

Murdoch’s testimony is part of his depositionin the lawsuit,the entirety of which Reuters has not viewed because it remains under seal.

Dominion has argued that internal communications and depositions by Fox personnel prove the network knowingly spread falsehoods about Trump’s loss in the election to bolster its ratings. Fox has argued that its coverage of claims by Trump’s lawyers were inherently newsworthy and protected by the First Amendment of the US constitution.

“Executives at all levels of Fox – both (Fox News Network) and (Fox Corporation) – knowingly opened Fox’s airwaves to false conspiracy theories about Dominion,” Dominion wrote in its filing.

Dominion claimed that Murdoch closely monitored Fox coverage but declined to wield his powerful editorial influence despite strong concerns about Fox’s coverage.

Murdoch testified that he believed early on that “everything was on the up-and-up” with the election,and that he doubted claims of election fraud from the very beginning.

Asked by a Dominion lawyer if he could have prevented Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani from continuing to spread falsehoods about the election on air,Murdoch responded,“I could have. But I didn’t,” according to Dominion’s filing.

Australian Sarah Hanson-Young,who is the Greens communications spokeswoman said of the claims on Tuesday:“These revelations call into question the overall credibility of News Corporation and the role they play in the Australian media landscape.

“If it’s OK for Murdoch journalists to lie in the US,why would it be any different here?” she said. “It is time for a royal commission into the Murdoch empire.”

Dominion’s filing opposes Fox’s motion for summary judgment,which seeks a ruling in the media company’s favour that would preempt the need for a trial on certain legal issues.

In its own filing made public on Monday,Fox argued that its coverage of statements by Trump and his lawyers were inherently newsworthy and that Dominion’s “extreme” interpretation of defamation law would “stop the media in its tracks”.

“Under Dominion’s approach,if the President falsely accused the Vice President of plotting to assassinate him,the press would be liable for reporting the newsworthy allegation so long as someone in the newsroom thought it was ludicrous,” Fox said.

Bloomberg,Reuters,staff reporter

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