Fox News anchors and producers privately acknowledged that former President Donald Trump and his allies' allegations of election fraud in the aftermath of the 2020 election were false despite their network's promotion of those claims, according to a new court filing by Dominion Voting Systems.
In a nearly 200-page document filed as part of its billion-dollar defamation suit against the network, Dominion Voting Systems shared emails, texts, testimony, and other private communications from Fox News personnel that cast doubt on claims that Dominion's voting machines had somehow rigged the presidential election in Joe Biden's favor...
...The court documents cite some of the network's top anchors and hosts, many of whom quietly shared misgivings about claims of election fraud and discussed how to address them on-air.
In mid-November 2020, host Tucker Carlson texted one of his producers that "there wasn't enough fraud to change the outcome" of the election, and later said that Sidney Powell, one of Trump's attorneys and a vocal promulgator of election denialism, "is lying."
Months later, on Jan. 6, Carlson called Trump "a demonic force, a destroyer," in a text message to the same producer.
Dana Perino, an anchor, called allegations of voter fraud against Dominion "total bs," "insane," and "nonsense."
In some cases, Fox News personnel raised red flags internally about their own colleagues. After host Maria Bartiromo tweeted about election fraud on Nov. 5, anchor Bret Baier pleaded to a network executive, "We have to prevent this stuff ... We need to fact check."