March 26 (UPI) -- Dominion Voting Systems filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News on Friday, claiming the network spread false claims that the company was involved in voter fraud during the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
"Fox sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process," NPR reported, quoting the complaint.
The complaint was filed in Delaware and is the fourth in a series of lawsuits launched by the Denver-based voting company. It seeks $1.5 billion in damages.
Fox News issued a statement Friday saying its 2020 election coverage "stands in the highest tradition of American journalism" and it pledged to "vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit in court."
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The Dominion lawsuit comes just a month after Smartmatic voting technology company filed a lawsuit against Fox News, some network hosts and attorneys advocating for former President Donald Trump. Smartmatic's 285-page defamation lawsuit filed in the New York State Supreme Court alleged a "disinformation campaign."
Fox Corp. filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the false claims of electoral fraud were part of its breaking-news coverage.
"An attempt by a sitting president to challenge the result of an election is objectively newsworthy," Fox's legal team wrote in the motion, according to The New York Times.
Dominion also sued Rudolph Guiliani, Trump's lead campaign attorney, in January, seeking $1.3 billion in damages. In its 107-page complaint, Dominion said the former New York City mayor personally profited from falsehoods he spread about the company by charging the Trump campaign $20,000 per day for legal services.
