Fox News settles 2020 election-related defamation suit with Venezuelan businessman

It’s not the settlement the media industry has been anticipating, but Fox News has reached an agreement with a Venezuelan businessman whose name was linked to false allegations about voting machines used in the 2020 election.

Attorneys for Fox News and Majed Khalil, the plaintiff in the suit, filed a letter Saturday with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York stating the two sides have reached a confidential settlement and will jointly file a motion to dismiss the case with prejudice early this week. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

“This matter has been resolved amicably by both sides,” a Fox News representative said in a statement.

The action comes as Fox News heads to a Delaware court on April 17 for the $1.6 billion defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Systems. Jury selection for trial starts this week, with no sign of a settlement in sight.

The judge in that case has already ruled that Fox News made false statements about Dominion. The jury will decide if the network acted recklessly or with malice in presenting the misinformation and whether Dominion is entitled to damages.

Among the false claims Dominion cites in its case are that the Denver-based voting machine maker was founded in Venezuela and had ties to its government. Attorneys for former President Donald Trump made similar claims about voting software company Smartmatic, which is also suing Fox News for defamation.

Khalil said in his lawsuit filed in 2021 that former Fox Business Network anchor Lou Dobbs and Trump’s attorney Sidney Powell named him as part of a false conspiracy theory that Dominion and Smartmatic manipulated votes in order to throw the election to President Joe Biden.

The remarks were on the Dec. 10 edition of Dobbs’ program, well after it was known throughout Fox News that there was no evidence of election fraud nor that the voting equipment companies had any ties to Venezuela, according to evidence filed in the Dominion case.

Khalil had no connection or business dealings with the companies or the development of their software.

“These allegations … were fabricated by Defendants out of thin air to xenophobically add another ‘foreign name’ to the manufactured charges of a non-existent Smartmatic or Dominion conspiracy with Venezuelan officials and private citizens,” the suit said.

Dobbs’ program was canceled by Fox News in February 2021.