The veteran mogul allegedly provided Mr Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, with “confidential information about Biden’s ads, along with debate strategy (providing Mr Kushner a preview of Mr Biden’s ads before they were public),” according to a filing from Dominion.

Mr Murdoch, questioned under oath, initially denied providing a preview an ad until he was shown an email in which he told Mr Kushner that he “will send it,” according to deposition exceprts.

“Do you think it is appropriate for someone in your position to give a heads up to the opposing campaign about what the ad of the opposing campaign will show before it is public?” Dominion lawyer Justin Nelson, said during the deposition.

“I was trying to help Mr Kushner,” Mr Murdoch said. “He’s a friend of mine.”

The chair of the conservative media empire said that hosts including Mr Hannity, Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro “endorsed at times this false notion of a stolen election”, claims that the former president and his allies continue to amplify as he seeks re-election to office in 2024.

“I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight,” Mr Murdoch said in a sworn deposition, according to court documents.

In sworn questioning by lawyers for Dominion, Mr Murdoch was asked whether he believes “that the 2020 presidential election was free and fair.”

“Yes,” he replied. “The election was not stolen.”

In a 19 November 2020 email to an associate, Mr Murdoch wrote that Mr Trump’s “stupid and damaging” fraud claims made him “increasingly mad” and a “danger” as president.

“Apparently not sleeping and bouncing off walls! Don’t know about Melania, but kids no help,” Mr Murdoch wrote.

Days before the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021, Mr Tucker Carlson texted with an unknown Fox employee to say that he “can’t wait” to stop covering the soon-to-be former president.

“We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights,” he wrote on 4 January, according to court documents. “I truly can’t wait.”

He added: “I hate him passionately.”

“We’re all pretending we’ve got a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it’s been is too tough to digest,” he said. “But come on. There really isn’t an upside to Trump.”

A defamation lawsuit against Fox News alleges a tight relationship between right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump’s campaign while the now-former president’s allies and attorneys frequently appeared on the network to promote his baseless narrative that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him.

Court documents with uncovered emails and sworn depositions in the case have revealed Mr Murdoch providing Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, with what allegedly amounted to campaign advice, magnifying the network’s intially-reluctant alliance with the former president.

Mr Murdoch, the executive chairman of the Fox Corporation, admitted in a sworn deposition that he gave Mr Kushner a preview of a campaign advert from then-candidate Joe Biden’s campaign and appeared to offer him debate strategy to pass along to Mr Trump.

“Do you think it is appropriate for someone in your position to give a heads up to the opposing campaign about what the ad of the opposing campaign will show before it is public?” an attorney for voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems asked Mr Murdoch, according to court filings.

“I was trying to help Mr Kushner,” Mr Murdoch said. “He’s a friend of mine.”

Read the full repory from The Independent’s Alex Woodward:

In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, the most-watched cable news network in the US gave Donald Trump and his allies a platform for their false claims that it was rigged against him.

At the centre of many election lies, conspiracy theories and the former president’s spurious legal challenges to reverse the outcome was Dominion Voting Systems – a voting machine company baselessly accused of flipping votes.

Those claims were aired uncritically on Fox News.

Those claims were false, a judge has determined.

And further, many of the network’s top on-air personalities, producers and executive leadership at Fox Corporation knew that, including right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Tucker Carlson, the most-watched host on the most-watched network.

The Independent’s Alex Woodward reports from Delaware:

Judge Eric Davis last week sanctioned Fox News for withholding evidence, rebuking the network’s lawyers for not being “straightforward with him”.

It was after Dominion Voting System’s attorney said Fox’s lawyers had not turned over evidence in a timely manner.

The evidence included recordings of Rudy Giuliani, former US president Donald Trump’s lawyer, saying in pre-taped Fox appearances that he did not have any evidence to back up the false allegations of election rigging by Dominion in the 2020 race that are at the heart of the lawsuit.

The recordings were made by a former Fox employee who is currently suing the network.

Judge Davis said he would also very likely tap an outside investigator to probe Fox’s late disclosure of the evidence and take whatever steps necessary to remedy the situation, which he described as troubling.

The day before a key hearing in the network’s legal battle with a voting machine company suing Fox News for defamation, a pair of lawsuits from a female producer at the network alleges that Fox fosters a “toxic workplace” where the “truth remains a fugitive,” depicting an environment where women are routinely verbally violated “by a poisonous and entrenched patriarchy.”

A federal lawsuit filed on 20 March from a producer forTucker Carlson Tonight describes a workplace that “subjugates women based on vile sexist stereotypes, typecasts religious minorities and belittles their traditions, and demonstrates little to no regard for those suffering from mental illness.”

Abby Grossberg’s lawsuits allege a litany of sexist remarks aimed at Fox News personality Maria Bartiromo from male colleagues (“crazy,” “menopausal,” “hysterical, “disgusting and difficult to manage”) and derogatory behaviour and comments aimed at other women, including political figures and female colleagues.

A defamation lawsuit against Fox News alleges a tight relationship between right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump’s campaign while the now-former president’s allies and attorneys frequently appeared on the network to promote his baseless narrative that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him.

Court documents with uncovered emails and sworn depositions in the case have revealed Mr Murdoch providing Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, with what allegedly amounted to campaign advice, magnifying the network’s initially-reluctant alliance with the former president.

Mr Murdoch, the executive chairman of the Fox Corporation, admitted in a sworn deposition that he gave Mr Kushner a preview of a campaign advert from then-candidate Joe Biden’s campaign and appeared to offer him a debate strategy to pass along to Mr Trump.

Audio released by MSNBC includes Rudy Giuliani privately admitting to Fox News personality Maria Bartiromo that he knew little about Dominion Voting Systems and had difficulty defending false claims that the company was involved with election fraud.

Recordings aired by the network on 12 April also include audio from a Donald Trump campaign official stating that a review from Georgia’s top election official did not discover any physical issues with Dominion machines.

The first recording includes an off-air conversation between Mr Giuliani and Ms Bartiromo on 8 November, 2020, just days after Mr Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in that year’s election.

“I’m going to be asking you for as much evidence as you can tell us about these lawsuits. Whatever you can tell us in terms of evidence would be really helpful,” Ms Bartiromo said, according to the recording.

“I can tell you exactly what we have,” Mr Giuliani replied.

He admitted that providing evidence about Dominion’s software to defend statements about the company is “a little harder.”

Mr Giuliani also said he “can’t prove” that now-former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had an interest in Dominion.