Fox News struck a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems on Wednesday, to avert what could have been one of the most explosive defamation trials of recent times. The American broadcaster also admitted to airing false claims during the 2020 US election.

The lawsuit was filed two years ago, after the channel had amplified Donald Trump’s claims that Dominion’s voting machines were vulnerable to hacking and that they were rigged in favour of presidential candidate Joe Biden in the 2020 election. The voting tech company had subsequently sued Fox News for damages of $1.6 billion, nearly double the amount of the settlement. Its plans to bring out incriminating evidence in public steered Fox to finalize the pay-up deal at the zero hour.

The settlement, which is reportedly one of the largest ever in a defamation case and the largest involving a media firm, came at the last minute – with a packed courtroom at Wilmington awaiting the trials. 

The proceedings would have seen the conservative media company’s prominent personalities on the dock, including proprietor Rupert Murdoch and hosts such as Tucker Carlson and Maria Bartiromo.   

“Fox has admitted to telling lies about Dominion that caused enormous damage to my company, our employees and the customers that we serve,” said Dominion chief executive officer John Poulos outside the court. “Truthful reporting in the media is essential to our democracy.”

The legal filings in the run-up to the trial have revealed embarrassing details about the internal communications of the media company, also leading to Murdoch’s acknowledgement that some of the anchors of the channel endorsed false claims.

The documents released by Dominion pointed to communication among the channel’s employees expressing scorn toward presidential candidate Donald Trump as they spread lies, questioning the legitimacy of the elections.

Dominion has similar lawsuits pending against other conservative networks, Newsmax and OAN, and against Donald Trump’s allies Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Mike Lindell.