frivolous, and partially granted Smartmatic's motion for sanctions and fees against Lindell and his legal team for filing the suit, with the amount to be decided later. Lindell told reporters that he was unconcerned with the ruling as "I’ve got lawyers doing more important things like removing these machines from every state." Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric M. Davis, on June 6, 2022, denied a motion from Newsmax to dismiss Dominion's case against them. Judge Davis stated that Newsmax "knew the allegations were probably false" about Dominion's technology, and "there were enough signs indicating the statements were not true to infer Newsmax's intent to avoid the truth." He went on to say that as "Newsmax apparently refused to report contrary evidence, including evidence from the Department of Justice, the allegations support the reasonable inference that Newsmax intended to keep Dominion's side of the story out of the mainstream." He ruled that Dominion had made a "reasonable inference" concerning Newsmax's actions and let the case proceed. On June 21, 2022, Judge Davis also denied Fox Corporation's motion to dismiss the suit by Dominion Voting Systems. He held that Dominion had shown that the company's chairman, Rupert Murdoch, and his son, CEO Lachlan Murdoch, may have acted with "actual malice" by directing the network to broadcast the conspiracy theory despite having been notified that it was false – as a business calculation in order to stem plummeting viewership. Dominion provided the court with reports from various news outlets that Rupert Murdoch had "spoke with Trump and other senior Republicans shortly after the election and urged them to drop their election-fraud narrative and concede defeat". Dominion pointed to a claim that Murdoch urged a Republican Leader to ask other party members not to endorse the false theory. Dominion also pointed out that Murdoch's other media outlets The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post condemned the conspiracy theory, and urged Trump to concede, which the court held supported "a reasonable inference that Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch either knew Dominion had not manipulated the election or at least recklessly disregarded the truth", and therefore should be subject to factual discovery. Soon after the court's decision, Fox News, on June 30, 2022, replaced their lead attorney Chip Babcock (a specialist in First Amendment cases) with veteran trial attorney Dan K. Webb. This was seen by legal reporters as "an indication that Fox News expects