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Election 2024

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Mark Lennihan

Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News had already exacted a significant toll on the conservative-leaning cable news outlet, thanks to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/03/07/fox-news-lawsuit/" target=_blank>extensive exhibits and depositions</a> released as part of the proceedings, even before the parties reached <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/04/18/fox-news-dominion-settlement/?itid=hp-top-table-main_p001_f003" target=_blank>a historic $787.5 million settlement</a> on Tuesday.

The evidence is voluminous, at more than 1 million pages. It’s a lot to sort through, and the sequence matters.

So below, we’ve assembled a timeline of some of the biggest and most important events that we learned about.

(A note before we start: The legal standard was whether Dominion could prove Fox acted with “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/08/two-key-episodes-that-highlight-fox-newss-legal-problems/" target=_blank>actual malice</a>” — that is, it made false statements while knowing they were false, or with <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/reckless" target=_blank>reckless disregard</a> for whether they was false. Dominion argued that the internal messages show many at Fox knew better about the Dominion claims, and thus its actions met that standard. Fox argued that its hosts were merely covering newsworthy claims and that certain hosts harbored sincere concerns.)

Shortly before midnight, Fox News’s decision desk calls Arizona for Joe Biden. Trump supporters cry foul at what they see as a premature call. Early the next morning, President Donald Trump falsely declares victory.

Fox host Sean Hannity’s show focuses <a href="https://archive.org/details/FOXNEWSW_20201106_020000_Hannity" target=_blank>extensively on alleged voter fraud</a>, and multiple guests refer to a potential “steal” of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">election</a>.

Fox’s chief legal officer, Viet Dinh, texts an executive: “Hannity is getting awfully close to the line with his commentary and guests tonight.”

Fox host Bret Baier texts internally that night: “There is NO evidence of fraud. None. Allegations — stories. Twitter. Bulls---. Nothing concrete. That will affect the spread in any of these states.”

Fox executive Ron Mitchell writes to a fellow executive, “I think Sean will see the wisdom of this track eventually, but even this morning he was still looking for examples of fraud.”

While texting about Trump and his business ventures, host Tucker Carlson says: “All of them fail. What he’s good at is destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong. It’s so obvious.”

Seth Wenig

Conspiracy theories about Dominion and voting software begin to percolate in right-wing media and on social media. Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel cites a “<a href="https://www.fox17online.com/news/election-2020/rnc-chairwoman-mcdaniel-on-election-integrity-from-bloomfield-hills-michigan" target=_blank>software issue</a>” in Antrim County, Mich., and notes that the software is used elsewhere.

Fox News and others project that Biden has won the presidency.

Shortly after the projections, Fox host Maria Bartiromo <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/29/fox-news-dominion-defamation-lawsuit-bartiromo/" target=_blank>sends an email</a> that appears to contain notes from a conversation with Trump-aligned lawyer Sidney Powell, including a statement about going “to a full on war.” The email refers to a number of bizarre claims about the election that would be quickly debunked. But it suggests Trump adviser Jared Kushner isn’t on board: “Jared says he doesn’t want to hear about any conspiracy theory.”

In other Bartiromo emails, apparently featuring notes from a conversation with then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), one email says after a question about whether the election was fair, “<a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/1641121983839584279/photo/1" target=_blank>I don’t believe there is a mass cheat</a>.” Another says, “I’ve not seen any proof so far of the ballot fraud.”

Powell joins others in publicly citing Dominion’s purported role in rigging the election.

Powell forwards <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/02/20/1158223099/fox-news-dominion-wackadoodle-election-fraud-claim" target=_blank>a bizarre email</a> to Bartiromo in which a woman lodges a number a conspiracy theories about voter fraud and focuses on Dominion. The woman claims a software code was used in which “up to 3% of votes for Mr. Trump would automatically switch to Mr. Biden.” The woman also claims that the late Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia was killed “during a week-long human hunting expedition” and that former Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes is part of a group that meets regularly “to determine how best to portray Mr. Trump as badly as possible.” (Ailes had in fact been dead since 2017.) “The Wind tells me I’m a ghost, but I don’t believe it,” the woman also says.

Powell appears on Bartiromo’s show, and Bartiromo closely echoes <a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-us-news-media-michigan-43bdaa186e3b8d9d897cae3bd0c6cdc0" target=_blank>false claims</a> about Dominion from the email. The email claimed that “Nancy Pelosi’s longtime Chief of Staff is a key executive there, and that Richard Blum, Senator Feinstein’s husband, is … a significant shareholder of that company.” On air, Bartiromo cites “reports that Nancy Pelosi’s longtime chief of staff is a key executive at that company; Richard Blum, Senator Feinstein’s husband, significant shareholder of the company.” Powell responds that Democrats “have invested in it for their own reasons and are using it to commit this fraud to steal votes.”

A Fox spokeswoman internally and repeatedly calls the interview “problematic.” Fox communications executive Irena Briganti responds, “Yes tons of crazy. … Heard something on Feinstein husband, etc — she is one of our biggest issues right now.” The spokeswoman responds, “Yup — her husband runs it — all that was mentioned. So problematic.” They agree they won’t promote the interview.

Bartiromo speaks with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani on the phone, and Giuliani acknowledges he “can’t prove” that Pelosi has an interest in Dominion, according to <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/audio-with-fox-news-shows-trump-team-privately-admitted-lacking-evidence-on-dominion-claim-170097221879" target="_blank">a tape of the conversation</a> unearthed by MSNBC. Giuliani also says it’s “a little harder” to prove allegations against Dominion than other claims. (It is not clear whether the conversation took place before or after Bartiromo’s morning show.)

As the organization begins to worry about <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2020/11/05/arnon-mishkin-fox-news-arizona-trump/?itid=lk_inline_manual_24&amp;itid=lk_inline_manual_10" target="_blank">losing viewers over its call in Arizona</a>, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/11/panic-set-fox-news-leaders-warned-featuring-buttigieg-coons/" target="_blank">relays guidance</a> from Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch and CEO Lachlan Murdoch. The guidance includes: “audiences don’t want to see too much of the Mayor Pete’s [Buttigieg] and [Sen. Chris] Coons [D-Del.] etc in the news hours. Need to be careful about bookings next 2 months-especially in news hours.”

Carlson texts, “With Trump behind it, an alternative like newsmax could be devastating to us.”

Host Neil Cavuto <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2020/11/09/fox-news-kayleigh-mcenany-cut-away-fraud/" target=_blank>cuts away</a> from a news conference after White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany says Democrats are “welcoming fraud” and “illegal voting.” “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Cavuto says, adding, “Unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good countenance continue showing you this.” An employee on Fox Corp. executive Raj Shah’s team emails Shah and others about Cavuto, labeling it a “Brand Threat.”

Fox News cuts away from Donald Trump's spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany over election fraud claims

Carlson texts producer Alex Pfeiffer: “The software s--- is absurd. … Half our viewers have seen the Maria clip.”

Later on his show, Carlson says, “We don’t know how many votes were stolen on Tuesday night. We don’t know anything about the software that many say was rigged. We don’t know. We ought to find out.”

Fox President Jay Wallace texts Scott: “The Newsmax surge is a bit troubling.” He adds that it “truly is an alternative universe when you watch, but it can’t be ignored.”

Scott texts a colleague: “[Fox reporter Peter] Doocy was still using Buttigieg sound in his reporter hit during special report last night.” The person responds: “On it.”

Hannity internally says of Giuliani, “Rudy is acting like an insane person.”

On his show that night, Hannity says, “Investigations continue in multiple key states where hundreds, now, of sworn affidavits are being filed, lawsuits are being filed, alleging serious election misconduct. … And let’s not forget the software error — we’re going to be focused on this a lot — wrongfully awarded Joe Biden thousands of ballots that were cast for President Trump, until the problem was amazingly fixed. And according to a report, that very same software — it’s called Dominion Voting Systems — that was used in 28 states.”

Jabin Botsford

9. Nov. 12: Growing pushback on the claims

The Trump administration’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) releases <a href="https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/news/joint-statement-elections-infrastructure-government-coordinating-council-election" target="_blank">a statement</a> saying, “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”

Dominion begins circulating the CISA statement in a fact check of various claims about the company. It begins sending the fact check to Fox shows.

On Fox host Lou Dobbs’s show, Giuliani claims Dominion is owned by another election technology company, Smartmatic, and claims twice that Smartmatic was founded “to fix elections.” “They have a terrible record,” he says. “And they are extremely hackable.”

After Fox reporter Jacqui Heinrich fact-checks a Trump tweet mentioning Fox’s coverage, Carlson texts, “Please get her fired. Seriously. … It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.”

Someone texts Carlson, “Trump needs to concede. There wasn’t enough fraud to change the outcome. He’s [starting] to do real damage to the party.” Carlson responds: “That’s for sure. He’s only good at destroying.”

A member of Fox’s internal fact-checking effort, the “Brain Room,” <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/1641126876025438220" target=_blank>shares both Dominion and Associated Press fact checks</a> debunking claims against Dominion.

Powell says on host Jeanine Pirro’s show: “We’re talking about the alteration and changes and millions of votes; some being dumped that were for President Trump, some being flipped that were for President Trump, computers being overwritten to ignore signatures — all kinds of different means of manipulating the Dominion and Smartmatic software, that, of course, we would not expect Dominion or Smartmatic to admit.”

Dobbs’s <a href="https://twitter.com/LouDobbs/status/1327649331789385728" target=_blank>Twitter account</a> promotes a Giuliani tweet and says, “Read all about Dominion and Smartmatic voting companies and you’ll soon understand how pervasive this Democrat electoral fraud is.”

Alex Brandon

Lachlan Murdoch internally objects to the news side’s coverage of a Trump rally: “News guys have to be careful how they cover this rally. So far some of the side comments are slightly anti, and they shouldn’t be. The narrative should be this is a huge celebration of the president. Etc.” Scott responds: “Yes thanks.”

Powell says on Bartiromo’s show: “President Trump won by not just hundreds of thousands of votes, but by millions of votes — that were shifted by this software that was designed expressly for that purpose. … It was designed to rig elections. … It was exported internationally for profit by the people that are behind Smartmatic and Dominion. They did this on purpose. It was calculated. They have done it before.”

Bartiromo adds: “Look, I want to show this graphic of the swing states that were using Dominion and this software, the Smartmatic software. … The voting machines were used, Dominion voting machines were used in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. And I have a graphic showing the states where they stopped counting, which I thought was also strange — to stop counting in the middle of election night.”

A Dominion representative sends Bartiromo’s show another lengthy fact check on Dominion claims, according to Dominion’s legal filings.

Roy Rochlin

Baier’s show plays the Nov. 15 Powell clip and includes pushback from an expert who says there is no evidence for Powell’s claims and adds, “This kind of pure speculation is irresponsible.”

Rupert Murdoch emails Scott about Newsmax: “These people should be watched, if skeptically,” adding, “We don’t want to antagonize Trump further, but Giuliani taken with a large grain of salt. Everything at stake here.” Murdoch also says, “Trump will concede eventually and we should concentrate on Georgia, helping any way we can” — an apparent reference to the GOP’s hopes in the Senate runoff election in that state.

Carlson complains about Fox’s PR team allegedly promoting a host’s fact check debunking claims like those made on Bartiromo’s show. Host Laura Ingraham says, “We are all officially working for an organization that hates us. … The people of news.” Ingraham adds: “My anger at the news channel is pronounced.”

Separately, Carlson texts someone, “Sidney Powell is lying.”

Dominion continues sending updated fact checks to Fox reporters, producers and anchors.

A group of 59 scientists releases a statement saying there is “<a href="https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~hovav/dist/election-statement.pdf" target=_blank>no credible evidence of computer fraud</a>” in the 2020 election.

Wallace speaks with a Dominion representative about the matter, according to Dominion court filings.

The News Corp.-owned Wall Street Journal’s editorial board <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/rage-against-the-voting-machine-11605656036" target="_blank">derides the voting machine claims</a>. “Where’s the evidence?” it says. “Strong claims need strong proof, not rumors and innuendo on Twitter.” It adds that “so far there’s no good evidence of voting problems that would come close” to overturning Biden’s win. Dominion shares the editorial widely with Fox employees, according to its filings.

Bartiromo interviews Giuliani. She says, “I mean, if you’ve got Democrats in charge, from here on out they’re in charge of the machines. You’ll never see a Republican in the White House again.”

Carlson texts Powell, saying: “You keep telling our viewers that millions of votes were changed by the software. … If you don’t have conclusive evidence of fraud at that scale, it’s a cruel and reckless thing to keep saying.”

Mitchell notes Newsmax has been citing the conspiracy-theory website Gateway Pundit, saying, “This type of conspiratorial reporting might be exactly what the disgruntled FNC viewer is looking for.”

Andrew Harnik

Also internally, Ingraham calls Powell “a complete nut” and says: “No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy.” Carlson responds: “It’s unbelievably offensive to me. Our viewers are good people and they believe it. … She’s soliciting ‘millions of dollars’ in checks made out to her personally.”

On her show that night, Ingraham refers to “affidavits from people who have been working in ballot counting for 20 years, who cited really disturbing things that they had seen.”

16. Nov. 19: The infamous news conference

Zach Purser Brown

Giuliani and Powell hold their <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/11/19/trumps-legal-team-lights-fuse-beneath-its-remaining-credibility/" target="_blank">infamous news conference</a> full of wild and false voter-fraud claims, including Powell alleging a communist plot involving Dominion, Venezuela, Cuba and “likely China.”

Reporter Kristin Fisher says on-air, “So much of what he said was simply not true or has already been thrown out in court.” Host Dana Perino says shortly afterward on-air, “I wouldn’t be surprised if [Dominion] decided to take some sort of action against this because, as you said, they have had these allegations out there smearing an American company.”

Fox employees internally note the two segments. Fisher is personally admonished, according to her later deposition, in which she says she was told she was not “respecting our audience.”

Scott responds to the segments by saying, “You can’t give the crazies an inch right now … they are looking for and blowing up all appearances of disrespect to the audience.” She adds: “The audience feels like we crapped on [them] and we have damaged their trust and belief in us. … We can fix this but we cannot smirk at our viewers any longer.”

Shah tells a colleague about Fisher’s segment, “This is the kinda s--- that will kill us. … i think nothing that was said on air is wrong … this was a crazy presser, but we should make clear we’re exposed on the right.” Shah adds: “We cover it wall to wall and then we burn that down with all the skepticism.”

But Shah internally says in the same string during the news conference, “this sounds SO F------ CRAZY btw.”

Rupert Murdoch internally says of Giuliani’s performance at the news conference, “Really crazy stuff. And damaging.” He calls Trump and Giuliani “both increasingly mad,” and says, “Terrible stuff damaging everybody, I fear. Probably hurting us too.” Scott responds to the last message by saying, “yes Sean and even Pirro agrees.”

Mitchell also privately derides Powell’s claims, telling a colleague, “Will you be mentioning the international crime conspiracy to steal the election featuring Soros, Maduro, Chavez, Antifa, Cuba, and China?” But then he laments that “those clowns put us” in “an awkward place where we’re going to need to thread the needle.”

That night, Carlson runs a segment deriding Powell’s claims and noting that she has “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/11/20/tucker-carlson-sidney-powell-fraud/" target=_blank>never demonstrated that a single actual vote was moved illegitimately by software from one candidate to another. Not one.</a>”

Giuliani appears on Hannity’s show and connects a Dominion employee to an alleged vote dump in Detroit, saying: “They were being notified by Smartmatic in Frankfurt that Biden was way behind and they better come up with a lot more ballots. And we can prove every single thing I just said.”

Dominion sends a retraction demand letter to Fox, according to its filings.

Dobbs producer John Fawcett texts Dobbs a link to a story on Carlson’s Powell segment.

A colleague texts Bartiromo about Powell, saying, “Sidney is so great” and “I believe everything she says.” Bartiromo responds: “So do I.”

Separately, Bartiromo emails with a Dominion spokesman who objected to Powell’s Venezuela claims, saying she was “not sure what to think” of the claims.

Shah and Pfeiffer converse about what to do with Powell’s claims and ultimately decide, with input from Carlson, not to belabor or push back on them. Pfeiffer adds, “This whole thing is surreal. Like negotiating with terrorists, but especially dumb ones. Cousin f----- types not saudi royalty.”

Rupert Murdoch emails Scott, saying of Washington editor Bill Sammon, who served on Fox’s election-night decision desk, “Maybe best to let Bill go right away and make acting appointment. Also the other guy. sensitive and we can’t have sneering at events. And be a big message with Trump people.” Scott responds, “We were going to do Stirewalt next,” referring to politics editor Chris Stirewalt, who also served on the desk. Both would soon be gone from the company. (Murdoch later <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/fox-ratings-sean-hannity-cnn-msnbc/2021/02/02/9a604eac-650d-11eb-8c64-9595888caa15_story.html" target=_blank>claimed to The Washington Post</a>, “Chris Stirewalt’s leaving had nothing to do with the correct Arizona call by the Fox decision desk.)

University of Minnesota

Aaron Blake is senior political reporter, writing for The Fix. A Minnesota native, he has also written about politics for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and The Hill newspaper.