Delaware judge orders Fox Corp. to produce hundreds of internal documents in shareholders' lawsuit

# What happened

# Why shareholders sued Shareholders filed the suit about three years ago to hold Rupert Murdoch, his eldest son Lachlan Murdoch (now executive chairman and CEO), and certain directors and executives legally responsible for a pattern of scandals and costly litigation tied to the company's business model and editorial choices. The case was driven by a nearly $800 million settlement Fox paid to Dominion Voting Systems over false election-related coverage. Smartmatic has a separate, ongoing defamation suit seeking $2.7 billion.

# What documents were at issue The judge declined Fox's effort to shield a trove of records. Material identified in reporting and the court order includes:

• Documents referencing "phone hacking" (about 700 documents), which relate to a British phone-hacking scandal that previously cost News Corp. roughly $1.5 billion.

• Records that could shed light on Rupert Murdoch's practice of deleting text messages, some of which plaintiffs say may have been relevant to prior litigation.

# Nasser matters in the case Nasser, the former CEO of Ford Motor Co., served for more than two decades on Murdoch corporate boards and earned six-figure annual compensation. He was designated as an independent director on News Corp., 21st Century Fox, and Fox Corp., and served as lead independent director until stepping down in 2023, the year Fox settled with Dominion.

Shareholders claim that if the evidence shows Nasser was too close to the Murdochs, he could not have acted independently. If enough board members are found non-independent, plaintiffs could clear a key legal hurdle that would likely push the case to trial.

# Broader issues the documents could reveal

# Immediate next steps With the judge's order, plaintiffs gain access to materials they can use to argue that board independence was compromised. Fox's attorneys had sought to protect many of these documents but failed in the Delaware courtroom. The decision strengthens plaintiffs' ability to probe the Murdoch–Nasser relationship and directors' selection processes.

# Why this matters for shareholders and governance The outcome will influence whether the court finds that enough directors lacked independence to permit a full trial on whether corporate governance failures enabled repeated legal and reputational harms. Producing the documents narrows Fox's ability to keep internal deliberations private and gives plaintiffs material to test claims about oversight and director behavior.

# Key context This is part of a long-running, high-profile corporate lawsuit tied to decisions made across decades and multiple Murdoch entities. The case draws on prior settlements and pending suits (Dominion, Smartmatic, and phone-hacking-related exposures) and centers on the factual record of board conduct and communications.