Judge Allows Venezuelan Businessman To Move Forward With Defamation Lawsuit Against Fox News, Lou Dobbs
deadline.comA federal judge ruled that a Venezuelan businessman can move forward with his defamation lawsuit against Fox News and Lou Dobbs over claims that he was involved in rigging the 2020 presidential election.U.S.
District Judge Louis Stanton rejected the defendants efforts to dismiss the case, finding that the businessman, Majed Khalil, “adequately alleges that Fox may be held liable for the defamatory claims.” Read the opinion here.Stanton’s decision means that the case can proceed, with a jury ultimately left to decide on the merits if it goes to trial.In his lawsuit, Khalil cited a Dec.
10, 2020, tweet on Dobbs’ account in which he wrote that the election was a “Cyber Pearl Harbor.” The tweet included a document in which Khalil is named as the “effective ‘COO’ of the election project, under Chavez and Maduro.
Khalil is a liaison with Hezbollah.”Later that day, Dobbs interviewed Powell, who claimed that Khalil and three others “designed and developed the Smartmatic and Dominion programs and machines that include a controller module that allows people to log in and manipulate the vote even as it’s happening.”Dobbs, who also is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, was dropped from the Fox Business lineup in early February, 2021.Khalil said in his lawsuit that no one from Fox News ever approached him to seek confirmation or denial about the election fraud claims.In his opinion, Stanton rejected the network’s claims that it was protected by reporting privilege on a matter of public interest, that Dobbs was merely expressing an opinion.
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