Fox News is defended by former AG Barr in an op-ed regarding the Dominion lawsuit

William Barr, a former attorney general, defended Fox News in court against Dominion Voting Systems' defamation charges.

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Barr stated that a decision against Fox would significantly undermine the First Amendment protection the news media enjoys and characterized the voting technology provider's case against the cable news giant as "weak."

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Barr said in the op-ed published Thursday night that a decision against Fox would be "a huge blow to media liberties generally, subjecting news outlets to the potential of outsized responsibility anytime they report on newsworthy claims that turn untrue."

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The former attorney general's position is consistent with what Fox's attorneys have been arguing in court documents and public statements for months, which is that the president of the United States making allegations of voter fraud was newsworthy and that Fox was not to blame for Trump's allies' claims.

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Dominion accused Fox executives and hosts of knowing Trump and his allies' stories were untrue but choosing to air them. A number of internal communications and depositions from Fox leaders have been uncovered in recent weeks' court filings by the voting systems company. These communications show them privately rejecting Trump's claims of voter fraud but fretting about how the network's audience might respond to fact-checks of those claims.

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Fox says internal emails of its workers have been "selected and picked" and do not establish the network's actual malice toward Dominion, a crucial legal need in defamation prosecutions.

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"Conservatives shouldn't weaken the actual-malice standard. We will probably remain on the wrong side of the culture-setting consensus for the foreseeable future," said Barr, who publicly refuted Trump's assertions of voter fraud before leaving his government. "The left should pause before supporting Dominion in this situation. Since there are far more left-wing media sources than conservative ones, the left has more artillery but also more targets for defamation lawsuits."