A federal judge has allowed a lawsuit against Fox News and host Lou Dobbs filed by a Venezuelan businessman to proceed.
Majed Khalil filed the suit last year, alleging remarks made on Dobbs's Twitter account and by Sidney Powell on Dobbs's program defamed Khalil by accusing him of conducting an "electoral 9/11" and aiding change ballot counts in voting machines.
Dobbs, the Fox Corporation and Fox News argued the comments are protected under the First Amendment and not said with actual malice. However, U.S. District Court Judge Louis Lee Stanton denied the action on Monday.
"Defendants repeatedly maintained their claims about Khalil long after Powell's election fraud theories were challenged," Stanton wrote in the ruling (h/t The Hill).
"Numerous reports that declared the falsity of the claims against Dominion and Smartmatic and rejected Powell as an accurate source of information gave Defendants reasons to doubt Powell's veracity and the accuracy of her reports."
The complaint is due to a tweet from Dobbs in Dec. 2020 listing Khalil as one of "four names" that people need to get familiar with.
Dobbs accused him of being a liaison with Lebanon's Hezbollah and the "effective COO" of an election rigging plan using Smartmatic and Dominion voting machines.
This case isn't the only lawsuit concerning defamation in connection with the 2020 Presidential Election, as suits by Dominion have also been brought against MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and Fox News.
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