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WILMINGTON, Del, April 5 (Reuters) - Fox Corp executives Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch can be called to testify at this month’s defamation trial over a $1.6 billion lawsuit claiming the media company lied about voter fraud in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, a judge said on Wednesday. Rupert Murdoch, the 92-year-old chair of Fox Corp, and his son, Lachlan Murdoch, its CEO, were not on the list of witnesses that Fox intends to make available for the trial, in a case brought by Dominion Voting Systems. “If Dominion wants to bring them live, they need to do a trial subpoena...

Former Vice President Mike Pence will not appeal a federal judge’s order that he testify in the special counsel’s probe of former President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, his adviser announced Wednesday. The decision not to fight the order could provide special counsel Jack Smith with remarkable access to one of the key people with critical insight into Trump’s thinking and efforts to cling to power. Last week, Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, largely dismissed efforts mounted by Pence and Trump to limit his testimony and avoid...

JANET PROTASIEWICZ: 548,650 votes (57.9%) DANIEL KELLY: 399,014 votes (42.1%) PERCENTAGE OF VOTES IN: 56%

LAKE BUENA VISTA — Gov. Ron DeSantis’ handpicked board overseeing Disney World’s government services is gearing up for a potential legal battle over a 30-year development agreement they say effectively renders them powerless to manage the entertainment giant’s future growth in Central Florida. Ahead of an expected state takeover, the Walt Disney Co. quietly pushed through the pact and restrictive covenants that would tie the hands of future board members for decades, according to a legal presentation by the district’s lawyers on Wednesday. The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District’s new Board of Supervisors voted to bring in outside legal firepower...

The federal judge presiding over E. Jean Carroll's civil rape and defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump ruled Thursday he'll use an anonymous jury in the case, noting Trump's inflammatory rhetoric about the justice system. "It bears mention that Mr. Trump repeatedly has attacked courts, judges, various law enforcement officials and other public officials, and even individual jurors in other matters,” U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of New York said in his decision. He also said he'll refuse to allow jurors' names to become public, adding, "If jurors’ identities were disclosed, there would be a strong likelihood of unwanted...

A federal judge has rejected former President Donald Trump's claims of executive privilege and has ordered Mark Meadows and other former top aides to testify before a federal grand jury investigating Trump's efforts to overturn the election leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News. Meadows, Trump's former chief of staff, was subpoenaed along with the other former aides by Special counsel Jack Smith for testimony and documents related to the probe. Trump's legal team had challenged the subpoenas by asserting executive privilege, which is the right of...

ORLANDO, Fla. – Joseph Harding, the former Florida representative who resigned in December after he was indicted on federal fraud charges, has taken a plea deal from the U.S. Justice Department. On Tuesday, Harding, who represented part of Marion County in the Florida House of Representatives, entered guilty pleas to one count of wire fraud, one count of money laundering and one count of making false statements. The rest of the counts against him will be dropped. Harding was indicted by a federal grand jury in December for using two inactive companies to apply for COVID-19 relief loans from the...

Fox News sued one of its senior producers Monday over the $1.6 billion defamation claim it is fighting concerning allegedly knowingly broadcasting disinformation regarding the results of the 2020 presidential election. Fox News's lawsuit came the same day that the producer, Abby Grossberg, who has worked with hosts Tucker Carlson and Maria Bartiromo, filed lawsuits against the company, accusing Fox lawyers of attempting to coerce her into lying to investigators to protect top executives and slamming the television network for being misogynistic. According to Fox's lawsuit, Grossberg told the network last month that she intended to sue it for discrimination....

A judge on Monday ordered sanctions against Republican Mark Finchem, the losing candidate in Arizona’s secretary of state race who challenged the election results in court. In granting the sanctions, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Iyer Julian said Finchem and his attorney, Daniel McCauley III, filed their lawsuit “without substantial justification.” Finchem lost the election to Democrat Adrian Fontes by 120,208 votes. Julian in December dismissed Finchem's lawsuit, which requested a new election, alleged that then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs had engaged in misconduct and claimed that illegal votes were cast because of errors in the laboratory testing of...

Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, has agreed to pay $3.15 million to settle a civil case filed by the Justice Department over undeclared foreign bank accounts. When the civil case was filed in April 2022, prosecutors alleged that Manafort had failed to disclose more than 20 offshore bank accounts he ordered opened in the United Kingdom, Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The government sought an order for Manafort to pay fines, penalties and interest, alleging he'd failed to file federal tax documents detailing the accounts and failed to disclose the money on his...

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has released three separate documents related to the investigation into the 2020 General Election. In a news release issued Wednesday morning, the AG’s office said that agents and staff spent 10,000 hours looking at any possible irregularities and pieces of evidence of voter fraud but lacked to find any. “In each instance and in each matter, the aforementioned parties did not provide any evidence to support their allegations. The information that was provided was speculative in many instances and when investigated by our agents and support staff, was found to be...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia voters on Tuesday elected Democrat Jennifer McClellan, a veteran state legislator from Richmond, to fill an open seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she will make history as the first Black woman to represent the state in Congress. “We will make this commonwealth and this country a better place for everyone,” McClellan said in a victory speech at a party with supporters in Richmond. “I am ready to get to work.” McClellan, 50, prevailed over right-wing Republican nominee Leon Benjamin in the special election for the blue-leaning 4th District, which has its population...

NEW YORK -- Republican presidential candidates will be blocked from the debate stage this summer if they do not sign a pledge to support the GOP's ultimate presidential nominee, according to draft language set to be adopted when the Republican National Committee meets next week. The proposal sets up a potential clash with former President Donald Trump, who has raised the possibility of leaving the Republican Party and launching an independent candidacy if he does not win the GOP nomination outright. While RNC officials and Trump aides downplay that possibility, such a move could destroy the GOP's White House aspirations...

Fox News anchors and producers privately acknowledged that former President Donald Trump and his allies' allegations of election fraud in the aftermath of the 2020 election were false despite their network's promotion of those claims, according to a new court filing by Dominion Voting Systems. In a nearly 200-page document filed as part of its billion-dollar defamation suit against the network, Dominion Voting Systems shared emails, texts, testimony, and other private communications from Fox News personnel that cast doubt on claims that Dominion's voting machines had somehow rigged the presidential election in Joe Biden's favor. The voting company is suing...

A man who was photographed marching in the violent "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 killed himself last week, according to a coroner's report, just as he was scheduled to face trial on federal drug charges. Teddy Joseph Von Nukem, 35, lived north of Mountain View, Missouri, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on January 30, according to a report from the Texas County Coroner's Office. That is the same day Von Nukem was scheduled to be in court in Arizona, facing four counts relating to illegal import and sale of fentanyl. He is a native of...

A New York state appeals court on Tuesday upheld an order finding Donald Trump in civil contempt for having failed to comply with a subpoena from New York Attorney General Letitia James in her probe of his business practices. In a 5-0 decision, the Appellate Division in Manhattan said James had established by "clear and convincing evidence" that Trump's response to the Dec. 1, 2021, subpoena was inadequate. The court said Trump's claim that a diligent search had failed to uncover relevant documents in his possession, without explaining what steps were taken to ensure nothing would be lost or discarded,...

<p>Former President Trump’s 2020 election campaign hired an outside research firm to try to prove allegations of voter fraud, but never released the results because the company disputed many of its theories and, according to Four, could not provide any proof that he was the rightful winner of the election was people who are familiar with the matter.</p>

A Pennsylvania family found shot dead in their backyard last week in what police say appears to be a suicide pact, included a mother and daughter who loved bowling and were devout Christian conservatives, people who knew them said. Morgan Daub, 26, and her parents, James Daub, 62, and Deborah Daub, 59, were found dead on the ground in the backyard of their home in York County, Pennsylvania, on the morning of Jan. 25, after police responded to a request for a welfare check from a neighbor. The West Manchester Township Police Department has since said that notes left inside...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, R-Ill., announced that the committee led by Democrats will "take a hard look" into "alleged misconduct" by Special Counsel John Durham as he conducts an investigation into the origins into the handling of the Trump-Russia investigation by law enforcement and intelligence agencies. In a statement Monday, Durbin referenced a New York Times report that included details about the opening of and actions taken during the investigation led by Durham after he was appointed by former Attorney General Bill Barr, which Durbin framed as "abuses of power." "These reports about abuses in Special Counsel Durham’s...

A jury on Monday convicted four members of the extremist group the Oath Keepers of seditious conspiracy. The jury started deliberations Thursday morning after a trial that spanned five weeks. Prosecutors said the four defendants — Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, David Moerschel and Edward Vallejo — used a “perverted version of American history” to justify their actions on Jan. 6, 2021. “Attacking the Capitol was a means to an end,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Louis Manzo told jurors during closing arguments Wednesday. He said the group took advantage of the riot and seized the opportunity to fulfill their goal of preventing...