!['We feel good' settling Fox and revealing the truth: Staple Street Capital's Yaghoobzadeh](https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/107227655-16819025581681902555-29086164264-1080pnbcnews.jpg?v=1681907232&w=750&h=422&vtcrop=y)
Last-minute settlement of $787.5 million in Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp. is a vital step for Fox News to reply to false claims that Dominion machines influenced the 2020 election, a key deal negotiator said Wednesday.
“We be ok with achieving our goals of holding Fox accountable and exposing the reality,” said Hootan Yaghoobzadeh, co-founder of the private equity firm and owner of Dominion Staple Street Capital, in an exclusive interview with CNBC’s Eamon Javers on Wednesday morning.
The settlement, which got here just because the initial statements were about to start, averts a lengthy trial that Fox network boss Rupert Murdoch and popular TV hosts could see testify publicly. This abruptly ended what was to be one of the crucial consistent cases against a media organization in years.
Hootan Yaghoobzadeh, co-founder of Staple Street Capital, during a press conference outside the Delaware Supreme Court in Wilmington, Delaware, Tuesday, April 18, 2023.
Samuel Corum | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Yaghoobzadeh was one in all the individuals who broke the settlement. On Friday, days before the trial was scheduled to begin on Monday, the chairman “really pushed the parties to see in the event that they could come to an agreement,” Yaghoobzadeh said.
He declined to share when Fox made the initial offer. Yaghoobzadeh only added that the initial sum was “not enough”. Dominion initially sought $1.6 billion in damages.
“We didn’t need to quiet down until the reams of data we were in a position to gather in the invention process saw the sunshine of day,” he added.
When asked if there was any discussion to demand a proper apology from Fox or force Fox presenters to apologize on-air, Yaghoobzadeh stressed that “Fox admitted that it agreed with the court’s rulings that the allegations made around Dominion were false, they were lies.”
“And for us, that was the responsibility we were searching for,” he said.
CNBC previously reported that the presenters wouldn’t have to verify the settlement or apologize on air, in response to people acquainted with the matter.
The huge sum of the settlement will go towards legal fees and taxes first, Yaghoobzadeh said. From there, it’ll be “mainly distributed to shareholders, management and employees,” he said.