| Lawsuit Against
Fox By Majed Khalil for Dobbs
Reporting Sidney Powell Charge
Lives On
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
book
BBC -
Honduras
- CIA
Trial book - NY
Mag
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Sept 27 – Majed Khalil sued
Fox News for defamation after
"Lou Dobbs displayed a graphic
with the title 'Four Names You
Need to Know According to
Sidney Powell,' which included
Khalil ' s name... accusing
Khalil , along with three
other individuals, of having
"designed and developed the
Smartmatic and Dominion
programs and machines that
include a controller module
that allows people to log in
and manipulate the vote even
as it's
happening."
Fox moved
to dismiss, and on September
26, 2022 U.S. District Court
for the Southern District of
New York Judge Louis L.
Stanton ruled, denying Fox'
motion to
dismiss.
Judge Stanton runs through the
applicable New York law, and
significantly notes that
Khalil was not even a limited
public figure: "Dobbs ' own
statements during his show and
tweets confirm that Khalil is
not a public figure . When
introducing Khalil to his
audience, Dobbs tweeted that
Khalil ' s name was one that
"[people] need to get familiar
with. " Compl. at 88
(alteration in original).
"Neither can
Khalil be considered a limited
public figure. A limited
public figure is one who
"voluntarily injects himself
or is drawn into a particular
public controversy and thereby
becomes a public figure for a
limited range of issues ." BYD
Co. Ltd . v . VICE Media LLC,
531 F . Supp. 3d 810 , 819 (S
. D. N. Y. 2021) , aff ' d ,
No. 21-1097, 2022 WL 598973
(2d Cir. Mar. 1 , 2022) . In
the Second Circuit , in order
to hold the plaintiff to be a
limited- purpose public figure
"a defendant must show the
plaintiff has : (1)
successfully invited public
attention to his - 21
- views in an effort to
influence others prior to the
incident that is the subject
of litigation ; (2)
voluntarily injected himself
into a public controversy
related to the subject of the
litigation; (3) assumed a
position of prominence in the
public controversy ; and (4)
maintained regular and
continuing access to the
media. " Lerman v. Flynt
Distrib . Co. , 745 F . 2d 123
, 136-37 (2d Cir . 1984) ;
Biro , 963 F . Supp . 2d at
270 . Khalil did not draw
public attention to his views
to influence others regarding
the election of 2020 nor
insert himself into a public
controversy related to the
defamatory statements against
him . He only became involved
in the conversation because of
the statements by Dobbs and
Powell . He has not maintained
regular and continual access
to the media. He is not a
limited public figure .
"Defendants repeatedly
maintained their claims about
Khalil long after Powell ' s
election fraud theories were
challenged . 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 .
While the
complaint does not allege that
the Khalil himself informed
Defendants of the falsity of
the claims against him, both
Smartmatic and Dominion did so
. Falsity of the claims
against both companies would
necessitate falsity of the
claims against Plaintiff.
Plaintiffs have alleged enough
facts in the complaint to
survive a motion to dismiss
and obtain discovery."
Inner City
Press will continue to follow
the case(s).
The case is
Majed Khalil v. Fox
Corporation, et al.,
21-cv-10248 (Stanton)
***
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