Fox News says Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity will testify at defamation trial

In a Tuesday letter to the Delaware judge in the case, Eric M Davis, attorneys for Fox News and Fox Corporation said they also intended to make available hosts and executives including Suzanne Scott, the Fox News chief executive, and the hosts Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro.

News anchors Bret Baier and Dana Perino were also named.

Rupert Murdoch, the 92-year-old chairman of Fox Corporation, and his son, Lachlan Murdoch, were not named.

Attorneys for Dominion have said they want to call the two Murdochs. Davis has suggested he could compel Rupert Murdoch to appear.

Lawyers for Dominion have also said they want to question Abby Grossberg, a fired Fox News producer now suing the network.

In their letter, attorneys for Fox said they did not believe Baier, Bartiromo, Carlson, Perino, Dobbs, Pirro and others could be compelled to testify.

Dominion says Fox is guilty of defamation because it broadcast claims and conspiracy theories about its machines in the 2020 election which hosts knew to be untrue.

Messages and emails from and between executives and hosts, revealed in a series of explosive court filings, have shown this was widely the case.

Fox contends that it was presenting allegations by public figures up to and including the president which reasonable viewers would not have taken for statements of fact.

The trial is set for mid-April.