Fox Corp.’s top lawyer Viet Dinh only became licensed to practice law in California in June—despite becoming the company’s chief legal officer in September 2018. This new information, first reported by Semafor, comes as Fox is currently in the midst of billion-dollar lawsuits against two different voting systems companies, Dominion and Smartmatic. Fox had aired unsubstantiated claims about both companies’ Voting machines stealing votes away from Donald Trump.
The licensing issue only adds to the headache Fox is facing with these cases. Fox claims it is protected by the First Amendment and that the outlet was covering newsworthy allegations. The $1.6 billion Dominion case is in discovery, and some of Fox’s biggest stars, like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are being deposed. Meanwhile, Fox’s efforts to limit what internal communications it is required to hand over to Dominion hasn’t been going so well.
Last month, a Manhattan judge ordered Fox News to start turning over documents to Smartmatic, which is suing Fox for $2.7 billion. Smartmatic lawyer J. Erik Connolly is already eying the possibility of accessing Dinh’s communications with Fox executives. “That is something Smartmatic will be asking for as we move forward with discovery,” Connolly told the outlet.
Dominion’s CEO John Polous is beginning to speak out about the damage he claims Fox has done to his company. “People have been put into danger,” Polous told Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes Sunday night of the continued repercussions his employees have felt from Fox’s reports. Their families have been put into danger, their lives have been upended, and all because of lies.
According to The New York Times, a judge had granted Dominion access to some of Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott’s emails and text messages. More has trickled out about what was going on behind the scenes at Fox News Media in the weeks after the election.
Fox news spokeswoman Irena Briganti, said in a statement to Semafor that Dinh’s law license has no bearing on any pending litigation or matter of privilege. An anonymous Fox News spokesperson claimed that Dinh’s application had been delayed by the State Bar of California losing Dinh’s application and then by COVID-19; however, the State Bar of California’s executive director rejected both of those claims.
Original Story at www.vanityfair.com – 2022-10-24 07:00:00