Fox News settles with Venezuelan businessman in election defamation lawsuit

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fox News said on Sunday it has reached a settlement with a Venezuelan businessman Majed Khalil, ending a defamation case in which Khalil said he was falsely accused on air of helping to rig the 2020 U.S. presidential election against Donald Trump.

Khalil had filed a defamation suit against the news outlet and former host Lou Dobbs, arguing in filings that they had fabricated claims he and other Venezuelans were involved in “orchestrating a non-existent scheme to rig or fix the election” against the former Republican president.

A short letter sent to U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton in Manhattan on Saturday said the parties had reached a “confidential agreement to resolve this matter” and expected to file a joint stipulation of dismissal next week.

“This matter has been resolved amicably by both sides. We have no further comment,” Fox News said in a statement on Sunday.

Lawyers for Fox News and Dobbs referred Reuters to the statement. Khalil’s lawyer did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Trump has continued to repeat debunked claims of widespread voting fraud as reason for his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election even after they have been roundly rejected by courts, state governments and members of his own former administration.

Jury selection is set to begin on Thursday ahead of a separate trial in Dominion Voting Systems Corp’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News and its parent company Fox Corp over their coverage of debunked election-rigging claims.