The hearing then turned to a hotly debated issue of the public disclosure of court documents. "You guys are fighting over 24 hours?" Davis asked, again with near incredulity. The latter point frustrated the judge, whom has been described by Delaware attorneys as " Cool Hand Luke" for his demeanor. The attorneys at the Tuesday hearing sparred over that question and others, such as topics that could be covered during testimony, the type of exhibits that could be shown, and even the number of days of advance notification a witness must be given before their testimony. Still unclear is whether Davis could do the same for officials farther down the Fox chain of command, including those directly involved in producing specific segments. Debate over making emails, texts and legal documents public Ultimately, Davis indicated that he has the authority to compel Murdoch to appear in court at trial. "I could have," Murdoch said in his deposition. He also acknowledged he had the power to dissuade Fox News' executives and stars from giving airtime to Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who peddled the lie. In his deposition, Murdoch asserted that he knew Trump had lost the 2020 election, but certain Fox hosts, including Bartiromo and Dobbs, had "endorsed" the narrative of a stolen election. He said his side hadn't argued that Murdoch was infirm, but that there was no reason for his trial testimony given that the Murdoch had already submitted to seven hours of questioning in the deposition. On Tuesday, Fox attorney Matthew Carter pointed to Murdoch's deposition when responding to Davis' incredulity about the media magnate's ability to travel.Ĭarter said there had been a miscommunication. The case, which was filed last year, has so far uncovered thousands of documents that attorneys intend to use as trial exhibits and has prompted scores of depositions. It also foreshadowed a key contention in the widely watched defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News: Were top executives, including controlling owner Murdoch, responsible for the broadcasting of baseless election fraud claims in late 2020? The exchange was the first of several in which the normally impassive Davis warned Fox attorneys to "be careful." "I also have people telling me that he's done some things recently that he's hardly infirm," Davis said, noting that Murdoch had recently announced his engagement to be married for the fifth time and plans to travel between his homes in Los Angeles, Montana, New York and London. Davis noted that he previously had received a letter stating that the 92-year-old Murdoch "couldn't travel" to the trial in Delaware because of COVID. The remarks came at the outset of a pre-trial hearing when Judge Eric M. The judge told Fox's attorneys not to make him "look like an idiot." The Delaware judge overseeing a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News on Tuesday did not seem to buy the argument that founder Rupert Murdoch was too infirm to testify at trial next month. The judge noted that Murdoch was planning to travel between four cities with his wife-to-be. Attorneys for Fox argued on Tuesday that chairman Rupert Murdoch should not have to travel to Delaware to testify in a $1.6 billion defamation case against the network.
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