Fox News settles with Dominion at the last second, averting defamation trial over its 2020 election lies

 (CNN) -- The judge just announced in court that a settlement has been reached in the historic defamation case between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems.

"The parties have resolved their case," Superior Court Judge Eric Davis said.

"Your presence here... was extremely important. And without you, the parties would not have been able to resolve their situation," the judge told the jurors, before dismissing them.

The settlement was apparently brokered while the trial was on the brink of opening statements in Wilmington, Delaware. After swearing in the jury earlier Tuesday, an unexplained hours-long delay paused proceedings in court, which yet again triggered rampant speculation that a deal was quietly in the works.

The last-minute deal means the closely watched case is effectively over and won't proceed to trial. By settling with Dominion, influential Fox News executives and prominent on-air personalities will be spared from testifying about their 2020 election coverage, which was filled with lies about voter fraud.

Details of the settlement were not immediately available, and might never become public.

In its lawsuit, Dominion sought $1.6 billion in damages from Fox News. The right-wing network argued vociferously in pretrial proceedings that this number was inflated and didn't come close to accurately capturing the potential losses that Dominion could have suffered as a result of Fox's 2020 broadcasts.

Fox News and Fox Corporation -- its parent company, which was also a defendant -- say they never defamed Dominion, and say the case is a meritless assault on press freedoms. They denied Dominion's claim that they promoted these election conspiracies to save their falling ratings after the 2020 election.

While the Dominion case is now over, Fox News is still facing a second major defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic, another voting technology company that was smeared on Fox shows after the 2020 election. That case is still in the discovery process, and a trial isn't expected anytime soon.

This is a developing story...

The-CNN-Wire
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