It continues to be a bad week for Fox.  First, its beloved aspiring autocrat is indicted on criminal charges, and now, a breaking ruling from the defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems has won a summary judgment on some of the aspects of the case, according to Adam Klasfeld of Law & Crime.  Fox also lost its effort to exclude some claims.

This is not the end of the case by a longshot, but this step is important:  Judge Eric Davis determined that the fact that Fox hosts lied, that “Fox News Network,” cited as “FNN” in court documents, “published”–or in broadcast terms, aired–the known lies, and that the false information directly concerned Dominion (“… the element of ‘of and concerning’.”) are not issues that need to be determined by the jury; the preponderance of the evidence supports Dominion’s assertion that all those things are true.

Davis did not, however, give Dominion a summary judgment on other aspects of the lawsuit, particularly that Fox executives and on-air “talent” acted out of malice, nor if Dominion incurred any actual damages.  Davis also made a hair-splitting determination that the jury may decide if Fox Corporation–which is different than Fox News Network in these proceedings and denoted as “FC”– is also responsible for “publishing” the lies about Dominion.

Brian Stelter, formerly of CNN, reports on Dominion’s statement on the ruling: “We are gratified by the Court’s thorough ruling soundly rejecting all of Fox’s arguments and defenses, and finding as a matter of law that their statements about Dominion are false. We look forward to going to trial.”