Fox News reaches defamation case settlement with Venezuelan businessman

A defamation suit filed by Fox News and a former host, Lou Dobbs, against a Venezuelan businessman, who was linked by the network to database fraud in the 2020 election, has been settled by the network.

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The parties said in a letter filed on Saturday with a federal judge in the Southern District of New York that they had reached a confidential settlement, although they did not disclose the terms of the agreement.

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"There has been an amicable resolution between both sides in this matter," a spokesperson for Fox News told the press in an email. "There are no further comments we would like to make."

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Fox News is defending a major case that was filed against it this week, and the settlement was reached days before jury selection is scheduled. It is alleged that Fox News lied about voter fraud in the 2020 election in the case, which is a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, and that Fox hosts and guests repeatedly made false claims about Dominion machines in the 2020 presidential election and their supposed role in a plot against President Donald J. Trump.

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The jury in that trial, which is expected to begin on April 17, will consider whether Fox spread false claims about Dominion while knowing that the claims were untrue, as well as whether any damages were incurred.

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“There is no doubt Dominion is suing for a financial windfall, but it is also a political crusade,” a Fox spokesperson said in response to Dominion's lawsuit.

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The case of the Venezuelan businessman, Majed Khalil, was exposed by Fox News, and Mr. Dobbs, along with Sidney Powell, who appears regularly on the network, claimed on air and in a separate tweet that Dominion was using software to alter votes for Joseph R. Biden Jr. by flipping them from President Trump to him.

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It was falsely stated in one of the tweets that Mr. Khalil was the "effective chief operating officer of the election project." In the complaint, Mr. Khalil claimed that neither Fox News nor Mr. Dobbs had contacted him for comment.

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In February 2021, Fox Business canceled Mr. Dobbs's weekday show on their network.