The MeidasTouch Podcast - BREAKING: Fox gets CRUSHED in Devastating SETTLEMENT with Dominion

Episode Date: April 19, 2023

Fox reached a settlement right before opening statements were set to take place in Dominions defamation trial. MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports. Shop Meidas Merch at: https://store.meidastouch.com Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/meidastouch Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 The Tony Michaels Podcast: https://pod.link/1561049560 American Psyop: https://pod.link/1652143101 Majority 54: https://pod.link/1309354521 Political Beatdown: https://pod.link/1669634407 Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://pod.link/1676844320 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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i'm ben mysellis from the midas touch network a settlement has been reached between dominion and fox in connection with dominion's defamation case against Fox. The settlement amount has been announced. Fox has settled for $787.5 million. Of course, the demand in Dominion's complaint was for $1.6 billion, but Fox is paying a hefty penalty for its defamatory statements. $787.5 million is the settlement amount. In addition to that settlement amount, Fox was also required to make a statement acknowledging that the court's rulings finding that Fox made false statements about Dominion was indeed

accurate. And so Fox had to issue a statement to all of the media confirming the falsity of many of their statements. I want to show you the press conference right now from Dominion's lawyer, Justin Nelson from the firm of Sussman Godfrey. And in this press conference moment, Mr. Nelson explains how today's settlement of $787.5 million represents vindication and accountability. Here, play this clip. And election officials across America into an alternative universe of conspiracy theories causing grievous harm to Dominion and the country. Today's settlement of $787,500,000 represents vindication and accountability. Lies have consequences. Another clip from the press conference, this from Stephen Shackelford, who was supposed to give the opening statement. No opening statement

ever took place. Let me show you this clip where Dominion's lawyer says that they are not done yet and there are other people who have some accountability coming towards them as well. And this refers to numerous other individuals and entities that have defamed Dominion here, play this clip. As I was preparing today to give the opening that we never got to, I never got to give, I was reminded of the hell that the Dominion employees went through and continue to go through to this day. Money is accountability. And we got that today from Fox. But we're not done yet.

We've got some other people who have some accountability coming towards them. And I'm very proud of the team from Sussman Godfrey that has worked tirelessly for this case. And here's a video clip of Dominion's lawyers leaving the courthouse. You'll see Justin Nelson and you'll see the attorney also on there, Davida Brooks. All these lawyers are from the firm Sussman Godfrey. And you'll hear one of the lawyers or someone say, it's a good day for Dominion. And another lawyer responds, it is a good day for democracy. Here, play this clip. Come on. That's a big smile. It's a good day. Good day? All right, guys. Good day for dominion. Good day for democracy. You know, early in my litigation career, I had a case against Davida Brooks and this litigation team. Davida Brooks was incredible.

We ended up reaching a settlement together. I think it was back in 2014, but I was so impressed with Davida Brooks there. Now, going to the statement that was made by Fox, I think Jake Tapper does a great job here reading the statement. And Jake Tapper can't even help himself as he reads Fox's statement. He basically talks about how embarrassing this is for Fox here. Let's play this clip of Jake Tapper. Fox trying to put a positive face on what can only be interpreted as one of the ugliest and most embarrassing moments in the history of journalism. Fox issued a statement saying, quote, we are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute

dispute with Dominion voting systems. We acknowledge the court's rulings, finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. The settlement reflects, I'm sorry, this is going to be difficult to say with a straight face. This settlement reflects Fox's continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards. We are hopeful that our, sorry, we are hopeful that our decision to resolve the dispute with Dominion amicably instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial allows the country to move forward from these issues. Unquote. Let's bring back CNN legal analysts. And just so you can all see my predictions for the purpose of transparency, and you saw the videos that I previously made predicting what I thought would ultimately be

the settlement structure. I think I came pretty close. This is what I said in the statement when there was a potential for settlement discussions. I explained that I thought the hardest thing for the parties to resolve was going to be over the statement by Fox and ultimately not the money. I said I believed Fox will pay around $500 million and Dominion would ultimately take that amount and Dominion will insist on a statement from Fox apologizing and Fox will not want to admit fault. And in the video I said, I think it could be slightly more than 500 million,

but I thought it would be under a billion dollars. And so let me explain to you how I made that prediction, but before doing so, let me just explain to you what took place in court today, how this settlement came about, how it was announced. So today's proceedings, what was supposed to take place was jury selection, and jury selection was completed early in the morning. And just to remind you, this case was taking place in Delaware Superior Court. The presiding judge over this case was Judge Eric Davis. Leading up to trial, Judge Eric Davis had made a ruling

granting partial summary judgment for Dominion, which made a judicial finding that the statements made by Fox were false. So all Dominion had to prove at trial was that Fox acted with actual malice. They had to prove the actual malice standard in making the false statements. To prove the actual malice standard, Dominion had to show that Fox acted intentionally and A jury was selected early in the morning. And then after jury selection took place, the next step that was supposed to happen was opening statements. And opening statements did not take place. They were being delayed and lots of people were saying, well, what is going on here with opening statements? Are opening statements going to happen? Judge Eric Davis runs a very tight ship and people were saying, what's going on? The lawyers were going back and

forth in different rooms in the courtroom. Finally, the lawyers show up, the jury is called back in, and then Judge Eric Davis announces and the parties announced to the jury that indeed a settlement had been reached. The judge thanked the jury for their service. The actual amount had not been read to the jury at that point in time. The lawyers thanked the jury. The judge said this was one of the most impressive groups of lawyers that he had seen. The parties then left and then they gave the press conference that you saw, Dominion's lawyers, Fox's lawyers kind of scurried out of there and they had to issue that statement as

part of the settlement, right? So the settlement had two prongs. Prong one, financial component, $787.5 million. We know about the other prong Fox had to release, the statement that it issued. And then we don't know if there's any other terms that may or may not be confidential, but as we learn more, we'll share that with you. Ultimately, why I thought it was going to settle around this number is if you look at Dominion's revenue and how much money Dominion makes. And I think from 2017 to 2019, Dominion at most could make an argument it was making between $30 and $50 million a year. So assume the high end that Dominion makes $50 million a year. So if you want to have an economic model of damages and say that Fox should compensate Dominion fully for all lost

business for the next 10 years and Dominion will never get another client again in the future for the next 10 years. That would be $500 million. If you extrapolate that out to 20 years, that would be a billion dollars. So the request for $1.6 billion requires a very, very, very significant projection into the future. Ultimately, I thought that a jury would rule in favor of Dominion and probably award Dominion the $1.6 billion and perhaps even more than $1.6 billion if you factor in punitive damages. But ultimately, where I think on the damages side, which drove this settlement amount, is the fact that a court of appeals, the appellate proceedings, may reduce the amount and say, it's too speculative to project a complete loss of earnings for 30 plus

years. And so that 10 to 20 year range is probably about right. And that kind of puts you in that 500 to a billion dollar range, right? So that's why I thought it would ultimately be in that number. And frankly, I do think even though Dominion put that $1.6 billion number out there, I do think this 787.5 million dollar5 million number, this massive number that they've settled for, though, is going to be around the highest that I think that they probably would have been awarded had you gone through this process. So again, a big victory for Dominion, a big win that Fox admitted fault. And I don't think that this is the end of it. I mean, would I have wanted to see this go? Would I have wanted to see this go to trial? Absolutely, I'd want to see it to go to trial.

But it is a good result for Dominion. One other factor at play that Dominion had to focus on, you know, Dominion's big investor is a private equity company called Staple Street. And Staple Street, their entire, I think, assets under management is about $900 million. And so if you assume their investment, I think they put around $50 million into Dominion. You know, they are shareholders of Dominion. And so this is a big, important return on investment. But I do think it is definitely more than money here. Fox is admitting that the statements it made is false. And I think that's going to have ramifications. Fox is paying a real significant

amount of money, $787.5 million, not an insignificant amount of money. And I think Fox may be inviting shareholder lawsuits and everybody in the future now to comment. Fox admitted that the statements that it made is false. So we will keep you updated as we learn more. But those are the breaking news updates that we have at this point. I'm Ben Mycelis from the Midas Touch Network. Hit subscribe. We're on our way to 1.5 million subscribers. So please hit the subscribe button. Also, check us out at patreon.com slash Midas Touch, P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash Midas Touch.

And finally, wherever you get your audio podcasts, if you can subscribe to the Midas Touch podcast. Thanks for watching. Until next time, I'm Ben Mycelis. Hey, Midas Mighty. Love this report. Continue the conversation by following us on Instagram at Midas Touch to keep up with the most important news of the day. What are you waiting for? Follow us now.