During Under Oath Testimony In The Dominion Voting Systems Lawsuit, FOX “News” Host Sean Hannity Testifies That He “did Not Believe” Donald Trump’s Big Lie “for A Second” — But Chose To Push It Anyways For An Entire Two Years

During under oath testimony in the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit, FOX “News” host Sean Hannity testifies that he “did not believe” Trump’s Big Lie “for a second” — but chose to push it anyways for an entire two years.

Mr. Hannity’s disclosure — along with others that emerged from court on Wednesday about what Fox News executives and hosts really believed as their network became one of the loudest megaphones for lies about the 2020 election — is among the strongest evidence yet to emerge publicly that some Fox employees knew that what they were broadcasting was false.

The high legal standard of proof in defamation cases makes it difficult for a company like Dominion to prevail against a media organization like Fox News. Dominion has to persuade a jury that people at Fox were, in effect, saying one thing in private while telling their audience exactly the opposite. And that requires showing a jury convincing evidence that speaks to the state of mind of those who were making the decisions at the network.

Mr. Hannity interrupted her with a gentle question that had been circulating among election deniers, despite a lack of supporting proof: Why were Democrats silencing whistle-blowers who could prove this fraud?

Did Mr. Hannity believe any of this?

“I did not believe it for one second.”

That was the answer Mr. Hannity gave, under oath, in a deposition in Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, according to information disclosed in a court hearing on Wednesday. The hearing was called to address several issues that need to be resolved before the case heads for a jury trial, which the judge has scheduled to begin in April.

In Delaware Superior Court on Wednesday, Dominion’s lawyers argued that they had obtained ample evidence to make that case.

One lawyer for Dominion said that “not a single Fox witness” so far had produced anything supporting the various false claims about the company that were uttered repeatedly on the network. And in some cases, other high-profile hosts and senior executives echoed Mr. Hannity’s doubts about what Mr. Trump and his allies like Ms. Powell were saying, according to the Dominion lawyer, Stephen Shackelford.

This included Meade Cooper, who oversees prime-time programming for Fox News, and the prime-time star Tucker Carlson, Mr. Shackelford said.

“Many of the highest-ranking Fox people have admitted under oath that they never believed the Dominion lies,” he said, naming both Ms. Cooper and Mr. Carlson. Mr. Shackelford described how Mr. Carlson had “tried to squirm out of it at his deposition” when asked about what he really believed.

Mr. Shackelford started to elaborate about what Mr. Carlson had said privately, telling the judge about the existence of text messages the host had sent in November and December of 2020. But the judge, Eric M. Davis, cut him off, leaving the specific contents of those texts unknown.

A spokeswoman for Fox News declined to comment.

Another previously unknown detail emerged on Wednesday about what was going on inside the Fox universe in those frantic weeks after the election. A second lawyer representing Dominion, Justin Nelson, told Judge Davis about evidence obtained by Dominion showing that an employee of the Fox Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, had tried to intervene with the White House to stop Ms. Powell. According to Mr. Nelson, that employee called the fraud claims “outlandish” and pressed Mr. Trump’s staff to get rid of Ms. Powell, who was advising the president on filing legal challenges to the results.

Mr. Nelson said that evidence cut straight to the heart of whether the Fox Corporation, which is controlled by Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, was also liable for defamation. Judge Davis ruled in June that Dominion could sue the larger, highly profitable corporation, which includes the Fox network on basic television and a lucrative sports broadcasting division.

The Fox News host responded to a question about allegations made by Sidney Powell, a former federal prosecutor who represented Trump in election-related lawsuits. Trump falsely claimed the election was rigged against him. Powell alleged that states that used voting machines made by Dominion Voting Systems were rife with fraud.

She reiterated the claim on Hannity’s Fox News program on Nov. 30, 2020, a couple of weeks after the election was called for Joe Biden. Powell stated there had been “corruption all across the country, in countless districts.”

Trump has baselessly alleged the voting machines “deleted” votes for him and in some cases “switched” votes for him to Biden.

Dominion is suing Fox News for defamation and is seeking $1.6 billion in restitution. The company is also suing Powell. The paper went on to say that Hannity’s testimony “is among the strongest evidence yet to emerge publicly that some Fox employees knew that what they were broadcasting was false.”

Lawyers for Dominion argued in court on Wednesday that “not a single Fox witness” has substantiated the allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

“Many of the highest-ranking Fox people have admitted under oath that they never believed the Dominion lies,” said one attorney.

Another lawyer for Dominion said the company had evidence that Fox News tried to stop Powell via the Trump White House from spreading her election fraud claims:

The Times said Fox News had no immediate comment for its story. Mediaite reached out to the network, which declined to comment through a spokesperson.