Judge rules out separate defamation trials for Fox News and Fox Corp

Rupert Murdoch (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

The judge presiding over a voting machine company’s defamation lawsuit against Fox has denied the firm’s request to hold separate trials — one for Fox News and another for the network’s parent company.

The request by Dominion Voting Systems came a day after its lawyers told the judge that Fox lawyers had withheld critical information about the role played at Fox News by company founder Rupert Murdoch, who is chairman of Fox Corp.