Dominion Voting Systems on Friday filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, arguing the cable news giant falsely claimed in an effort to boost faltering ratings that the voting company had rigged the 2020 election.  
It’s the first defamation suit filed against a media outlet by the voting company, which was a target of misleading, false and bizarre claims spread by President Donald Trump and his allies in the aftermath of Trump’s election loss to Joe Biden. Those claims helped spur on rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6 in a violent siege that left five people dead, including a police officer. The siege led to Trump’s historic second impeachment.
Dominion argues that Fox News, which amplified inaccurate assertions that Dominion altered votes, “sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process,” according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by The Associated Press.  
Some Fox News on-air reporting segments have debunked some of the claims targeting Dominion. An email sent to Fox News Friday morning, seeking comment on the lawsuit, was not immediately returned.  
There was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election, a fact that a range of election officials across the country — and even Trump’s attorney general, William Barr — have confirmed. Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, key battleground states crucial to Biden’s victory, also vouched for the integrity of the elections in their states. Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies were dismissed by judges, including two tossed by the Supreme Court, which has three Trump-nominated justices.
Still, some Fox News employees elevated false charges that Dominion had changed votes through algorithms in its voting machines that had been created in Venezuela to rig elections for the late dictator Hugo Chavez. On-air personalities brought on Trump allies Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, who spread the claims, and then amplified those claims on Fox News’ massive social media platforms.  
Dominion said in the lawsuit that it tried repeatedly to set the record straight but was ignored by Fox News.  
The company argues that Fox News, a network that features several pro-Trump personalities, pushed the false claims to explain away the former president’s loss. The cable giant lost viewers after the election and was seen by some Trump supporters as not being supportive enough of the Republican.  
Attorneys for Dominion said Fox News’ behavior differs greatly from that of other media outlets that reported on the claims.
“This was a conscious, knowing business decision to endorse and repeat and broadcast these lies in order to keep its viewership,” said attorney Justin Nelson, of Susman Godfrey LLC.
Though Dominion serves 28 states, until the 2020 election it had been largely unknown outside the election community. It is now widely targeted in conservative circles, seen by millions of people as one of the main villains in a fictional tale in which Democrats nationwide conspired to steal votes from Trump, the lawsuit said.
Dominion’s employees, from its software engineers to its founder, have been harassed. Some received death threats. And the company has suffered “enormous and irreparable economic harm,” lawyers said.  
Dominion has also sued Giuliani, Powell and the CEO of Minnesota-based MyPillow over the claims. A rival technology company, Smartmatic USA, also sued Fox News over election claims. Unlike Dominion, Smartmatic’s participation in the 2020 election was restricted to Los Angeles County.
Dominion lawyers said they have not yet filed lawsuits against specific media personalities at Fox News, but the door remains open. Some at Fox News knew the claims were false but their comments were drowned out, lawyers said.  
“The buck stops with Fox on this,” attorney Stephen Shackelford said. “Fox chose to put this on all of its many platforms. They rebroadcast, republished it on social media and other places.”
The suit was filed in Delaware, where both companies are incorporated, though Fox News is headquartered in New York and Dominion is based in Denver.
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Unaccompanied minors continue to stream across the US-Mexico border, the only migrant group the Biden administration is allowing to remain in the US.  As VOA’s Aline Barros reports, the influx has overwhelmed an immigration system struggling to comply with strict requirements for housing and processing children.
Camera: Celia Mendoza
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A young man carrying six firearms, including an assault rifle and a pump-action shotgun, was arrested Wednesday at a supermarket in a suburb of Atlanta, police said in the U.S. state capital of Georgia. The incident came two days after a massacre at a Colorado supermarket, which itself followed another massacre the week before, carried out by a gunman in massage businesses in Atlanta.  In addition to his small arsenal, which included various ammunition, the 22-year-old was wearing a bulletproof vest. A customer saw him enter the store with his assault rifle in hand, then quietly go to a restroom, where he leaned this weapon against a toilet bowl. The witness then alerted store employees. It was not known whether the suspect, identified as Rico Marley, intended to carry out an attack in the Publix chain supermarket in the area of Atlantic Station. However, he was charged with attempted assault and multiple unlawful detentions of firearms, and then jailed. Atlanta police released a photo showing the items seized from the suspect: an assault rifle, a shotgun, four handguns, several magazines and at least two knives.
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The commander of U.S. special operations forces says he fears the current government in Afghanistan could fall and that its security forces will be overrun by the Taliban should the United States decide to pull all of its troops from the country. U.S. Special Operations Command’s Gen. Richard Clarke told U.S. lawmakers Thursday that while the Afghan military has worked to improve its capabilities, it cannot sustain itself without the current level of American support. “While progress has been made … the capabilities that the U.S. provides for the Afghans to be able to combat the Taliban and other threats that reside in Afghanistan are critical to their success,” Clarke told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Special Operations Command Gen. Richard Clarke speaks at a hearing on Capitol Hill, March 25, 2021.The warning from Clarke, who said he traveled to Afghanistan recently to meet with the head of the Afghan military’s new joint special operations command, comes as the U.S. and NATO allies face a May 1 deadline to pull all troops out of the country – part of a deal last year between the Taliban and the administration of then-U.S. President Donald Trump. Current U.S. President Joe Biden and other top security and defense officials have been reviewing the deal but say no decision has been made on whether to comply and withdraw some 2,500 U.S. forces. He told reporters Thursday at his first press conference that it’s unlikely the U.S. will be out by the deadline. U.S. troop withdrawal Should the U.S. decide to pull out, some 7,000 NATO forces would also leave. Some leading U.S. lawmakers, though, have said they believe the Biden administration will try to find a way to at least extend the deadline for the troop withdrawal.  “There’s a general feeling that May 1 is too soon,” House Armed Service Committee Chair Adam Smith told a Foreign Policy virtual discussion Wednesday. FILE – A U.S. soldier keeps watch at an Afghan National Army base in Logar province, Afghanistan, Aug. 5, 2018.Smith said he was basing his comments on discussions in recent weeks with top Biden administration officials, including National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. “You cannot pull out 10,000-plus troops in any sort of reasonable way in six weeks,” he said, calling it a matter of logistics.   “Running for the exits pell-mell by May 1 is dangerous,” he said. “I don’t want to leave a bunch of high-grade military equipment behind for whoever grabs either.” Increased violence Aside from logistics, U.S. and NATO officials have raised concerns about what they say is the Taliban’s failure to live up to the deal. They argue the Taliban have shown no indication they are cutting ties with terror groups like al-Qaida. And while Taliban forces have refrained from launching attacks on U.S. troops, the level of violence in Afghanistan has spiked. “It’s clear that the Taliban have not upheld what they said they would do and reduce the violence,” Clarke told U.S. lawmakers, saying he has seen them do the opposite. FILE – Members of the Taliban delegation arrive for an Afghan peace conference in Moscow, Russia, March 18, 2021.”It is clear they took a deliberate approach and increased their violence since the peace accords were signed,” the U.S. commander said. Despite growing misgivings from U.S. officials about the approaching deadline for withdrawal, Taliban officials are insisting Washington honor the deal as is. “It is clearly stated in the agreement that America will withdraw all its troops (from Afghanistan) by May 1, and we again ask them to strictly adhere to the mutually agreed deadline,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA earlier this week. “In case Americans do not meet their obligations and abandon the agreement, the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) will be forced to defend their nation and consider all other options to force foreign troops out of the country,” Mujahid said, without elaborating. US to Consult with NATO Allies on Afghanistan Pullout PlansTaliban want Washington to stick to May 1 deadline to remove troops as outlined in 2020 US-Taliban agreementFears about the fate of Afghanistan should U.S. forces leave are not new. Earlier this month, a U.S. government watchdog warned that U.S. and international efforts to build a strong and stable Afghanistan “may turn out to be a bridge too far.” “It may not be an overstatement that if foreign assistance is withdrawn and peace negotiations fail, Taliban forces could be at the gates of Kabul in short order,” said John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).    Fixing Afghanistan Might Be ‘a Bridge Too Far,’ US Watchdog WarnsUnabating violence and the Afghan government’s inability to sustain itself and its security forces could doom peaceful conclusion to decades of war, US inspector general for Afghan reconstruction saysSopko also cautioned that it is not just the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces that could cripple the Afghan government. He said the departure of approximately 18,000 contractors and trainers, also required under the U.S.-Taliban deal, would be even more devastating. “The Afghan government relies heavily on these foreign contractors and trainers to function,” Sopko said. “No Afghan air frame can be sustained as combat effective for more than a few months in the absence of contractor support.” VOA’s Ayaz Gul in Islamabad contributed to this report.
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A judge in the U.S. state of Colorado has ordered the suspected killer of 10 people at a supermarket to remain in jail without bond. Authorities have charged 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa with 10 counts of murder in connection with the mass shooting at a grocery store on Monday in the city of Boulder, about 45 kilometers northwest of Denver.Judge Thomas Mulvahill granted a request Thursday from Alissa’s lawyers to delay the preliminary hearing by up to three months to have him undergo a mental health assessment. Alissa’s lawyers did not provide details about his condition, but a law enforcement official briefed on the killings previously said family members informed investigators of their belief he was mentally ill.Alissa surrendered his right to a preliminary hearing within 35 days to allow time for the mental health examination.Thursday was the first time Alissa appeared in public since his arrest on Monday inside the supermarket where the killings occurred. Alissa acknowledged he understood his legal rights, including that he would be held without bail.The fatal mass shooting prompted U.S. President Joe Biden to call Tuesday for a nationwide ban on assault weapons.  Biden Calls for Assault Weapons Ban in Wake of Colorado ShootingUS president calls for Senate to immediately pass bills that close loopholes in gun purchase background checksSpeaking at the White House, Biden said, “I don’t need to wait a minute, let alone an hour, to take common sense steps to save lives.”  He urged members of the House and Senate to act. “We can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” Biden said, noting that he worked on similar legislation when he was a senator and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. That law was passed in 1994 but was allowed to expire 10 years later.  Biden also called on the Senate to approve measures already passed by the House that would close loopholes in laws requiring background checks on the purchase of guns.     The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday held a hearing, the first of a series planned to discuss ways of reducing gun violence. Biden said his heart goes out to the survivors and families of the victims of the Boulder shooting.   Investigators have not disclosed any motives. Authorities said Tuesday that Alissa purchased an assault weapon six days before the attack.Among the victims – whose ages ranged from 20 to 65 – was 51-year-old Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley. He was the first to arrive and exchanged gunfire with the suspect, who was carrying what was reported to be an assault-style rifle. No other officers were injured.  Biden noted Monday’s attack followed the killing of eight people at three Atlanta-area spas March 16.  Flags in the U.S. capital, Washington, were already flying at half-staff for those victims.
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