The MeidasTouch Podcast - Dominion deposes Rupert Murdoch and seeks devastating sanctions against Fox

Episode Date: December 12, 2022

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on the updates in the Dominion lawsuit against Fox, where Dominion sought spoliation sanctions last week and will be deposing Rupert Murdoch this week on Tuesday and Wednesday. Shop Meidas Merch at: https://store.meidastouch.com Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/meidastouch Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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presiding judge there, Judge Eric Davis. Last week, Dominion filed a motion for sanctions against Fox for spoliation, which means the intentional destruction of emails. And according to the motion filed by Dominion, Fox intentionally deleted emails that belong to Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and the CEO of Fox, Suzanne Scott, to just name a few of the witnesses who it is now alleged by Dominion had their emails purged intentionally to try to hide what they were actually saying in real time during 2020 election results and thereafter to avoid a jury having to hear the damaging information.

And additionally, this week on Tuesday and Wednesday, Rupert Murdoch, who still carries the title of chairman of all of Fox. I hate to call it Fox News, but that's the legal name of it. But Rupert Murdoch is going to be deposed on Tuesday and Wednesday, which marks the first time that Rupert Murdoch is going to have to speak under oath in a very high profile setting. And the last time that occurred is in 2011 when Rupert Murdoch went before the British Parliament with a major scandal there where Fox and a daily tabloid there called News of the World, which was run and owned by Rupert Murdoch, which is a Sunday tabloid, was involved in hacking into celebrities and high-profile people's phones to get their voice messages and emails. So let's take

these two issues and break them down. First, let's talk about the spoliation motion that Dominion filed last week on Wednesday. Spoliation is a legal term and spoliation means the intentional destruction of documents in anticipation of litigation. And so when a party reasonably anticipates litigation, they have an obligation to preserve all records. That preservation obligation just exists generally in the law, but I'm also sure here that Dominion sent a preservation letter as well to Fox and to all of its executives demanding that they preserve all emails, all documents, all electronically stored information, as we call it, ESI in the legal field. So I have no doubt that that was something that Dominion did there. And what

Dominion is alleging is that critical emails, crucial emails, crucial messages have been destroyed. Now, how would Dominion know that? Well, in cases like this, the parties hire third-party electronic discovery vendors. The parties will make interrogatory requests and document requests and sometimes use search terms. And then what you do is you have a deposition where you talk to an individual witness. So let's say there was document requests that were sent to Sean Hannity. When Sean Hannity gets deposed by Dominion, which he has already, as has Laura Ingraham, as has Jeanine Pirro, as has the CEO, Susan Scott, as has Lachlan, and everybody basically other than Rupert Murdoch has been deposed to date.

So they're climbing the ladder now. And so when you take the deposition, you say, what steps did you take to preserve it? Did you hear that there was a preservation obligation? Did you delete any of the documents? And you go through those questions under penalty of perjury to determine what steps that the witness, the deponent, took to preserve their records. And then if they give unsatisfactory answers, you then dig deeper. You can propound interrogatory questions under oath to then try to discover what preservation obligations were undertaken by the defendant. And one of the ways you can also know too, is if you're sending out third party subpoenas and you discover an email that's from the third party that let's say was

having an email communication with Hannity or Laura Ingraham. But when you made the document request to Hannity and Laura Ingraham, they didn't turn that over. You know that they likely have spoliated or deleted. And then you basically focus your discovery. You stay laser focused on what they were doing and what steps they were taking to preserve records. You ask for a deposition of a custodian of records. You can ask for a deposition of what's called a person most knowledgeable, a PMK deposition about the steps that were taken to preserve

emails and documents, and then you get to the bottom of it. And here, I have no doubt that Dominion took those steps before filing its motion for sanctions. Now, what type of sanctions can be issued? One thing to mention as well is that in this case, the judge who's presiding over it, Judge Eric M. Davis, is relying on a special master. Because the document production is so voluminous, oftentimes in a complex document-heavy case where the parties dispute lots of things,

it would make sense, unlike the other cases that Donald Trump brought before Judge Eileen Cannon. This is the actual example where you would often have a special master who can really adjudicate discovery disputes so that the superior court judge doesn't have to literally dedicate their entire docket to resolving those discovery disputes. And so a spoliation motion is filed, and the results of a spoliation motion can be sanctions, monetary sanctions. But here, what Dominion is asking for is an adverse inference instruction to be given to the jury, that a order be made, that a finding be made, that Dominion intentionally spoliated, and spoliated just means intentionally deleted, emails and records of their key witnesses, people like Suzanne Scott, the CEO, and Sean Hannity,

and Laura Ingraham, in order to avoid accountability. And if that adverse inference instruction is ultimately given, it's not fully game over for a party that the instruction is made against, but it's very close to being game over because during your opening statement and during your closing argument and throughout the trial, you go to the jury, you go, look, these people intentionally destroyed their records, and you can infer, based on the instructions that the judge is giving you, that they're trying to cover up their unlawful conduct.

They're trying to cover up their liability. So you're able to make a finding that that's why these emails don't exist, and you can make the finding that these emails are so damaging and so dangerous that that is why Fox deleted and hid these emails. So let's keep an eye on what the special master is going to do there. What's better than a well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue? A well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever

groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Now, this week as well, on Tuesday and Wednesday of this upcoming week, we're going to have the deposition of Rupert Murdoch. This follows last week the deposition of Lachlan Murdoch, who is the top executive, but Rupert Murdoch has the title of the World scandal broke in the UK, where many of his journalists were arrested and actually served prison time for their unlawful hacking. Now, here's some of the evidence

that we already know as well, because what Dominion's going to do is they're going to climb the ladder before you take the deposition of Rupert Murdoch. So they've taken the depositions of all the key reporters. They've taken the deposition of the key executives. They've taken the deposition of Suzanne Scott. Now they go to Rupert Murdoch.

Now here's one of the things we know from the prior discovery. We know that Suzanne Scott, the CEO of Fox, that she stated the following. And the Dominion lawyers have a document that says this, that Suzanne Scott said, quote, we can't give the crazies an inch here, referring to people like Jeanine Pirro and Mike Lindell, my pillow guy, and all of these other right wingers who not only did they giveacies and say Dominion was linked with Hugo Chavez and the bamboo in China. And Dominion did all of these, to quote Suzanne Scott, crazies spread over and over and over again. So Rupert Murdoch is going to be asked those questions. So Rupert Murdoch is now 91 years old. When he was previously under oath, he was in his 80s. And so a lot of people are thinking that Rupert Murdoch is going

to testify as kind of an aw shucks that he doesn't really know what's really going on and he relies on others. I mean, that's one of the things that he actually did in the News of the World scandal where he blamed his son James, his younger son James, for a lot of what took place. And even when James was given the opening statement, Rupert Murdoch interrupted James to Parliament and said, I just want to let you know how humbled I am. This is the most humbled I've ever been in my life. I would just like to say one sentence.

This is the most humble day of my life. And then try to act like he was the person who's going to fix it. But look, Fox faces a huge amount of liability here. Dominion is suing for $1.6 billion with a B for defamation. What Dominion has to show, given that they are a public figure or a public entity and these matters concern issues of public concern and public import to a jury, is that Fox committed the defamatory conduct with actual malice. Actual malice can be intentional or it can be reckless that no reasonable person presented with these facts would ever you know provide these conspiracies or they acted so recklessly by

platforming all of these right wing and to quote suzanne's got crazies so that's one of the ways that dominion will be able to establish actual malice here. Why I think they have a very strong case, because they're going to tell the jury, look, Suzanne Scott, the CEO, said the following, we can't give the crazies an inch. And they gave the crazies an inch. That shows that the corporation knew what they were doing, and it was either intentional,

or it was done with a reckless disregard for the truth. Now trial is set for April of 2023. So trial is just around the corner. It doesn't look like Dominion has any desire to try to settle this matter. And Dominion has a great case against Fox. And this is only Dominion. Remember, there are many other entities and individuals who have these massive claims against Fox. This liability is huge. It's nothing that Fox can simply ignore.

And we, of course, are not going to ignore it here on the Midas Touch Network. Hit the subscribe button right now. We are on our way to one million subscribers thanks to your great support. And in addition, check us out at Patreon. Go to patreon.com slash Midas Touch. That's patreon.com slash Midas Touch.

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