civil-law rules-of-evidence
How did Dominion legally obtain text messages from Fox News hosts?
<p>In the current case of Dominion v Fox News, we saw that text messages from Fox News hosts have been admitted as legal evidence in court.</p>
<p>My understanding was that text messages either had to be turned voluntarily, or they had to be forcefully retrieved by law-enforcement if they have a warrant.</p>
<p>Either scenario seems somewhat unlikely to me : I cannot imagine Fox News hosts to voluntarily hand over incriminating texts, and I also struggle to see how they would have been forced to enforce it, given how hard defamation is to prove in the US.</p>
<p>Does anyone have more details on how these text messages were obtained, and accepted in court?</p>

<h2>Because the hosts are part of the defendants.</h2>
<p>A party in a lawsuit can demand documents to be turned over to them from the opposing party. That is called <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/discovery" rel="noreferrer">Discovery</a> and participation is mandatory. Not turning over the documents requested and not providing a good reason why they should not be turned over is contempt of court.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Discovery under the Federal Rules is very broad. According to Rule 26(b)(1), &quot;Parties may obtain discovery regarding any non-privileged matter that is relevant to any party's claim or defense.&quot; The federal rules also provide several tools that can be used to get information from other parties, including interrogatories, depositions, and requests for admission. <strong>A party may also compel other parties to give them access to documents</strong>, real property, <strong>or other things for review</strong> or testing. See <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp#chapter_v" rel="noreferrer">Rules 26-37.</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Delaware rules of Civil Procedure mimic the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure very closely, and <a href="https://casetext.com/rule/delaware-court-rules/rules-of-civil-procedure-for-the-superior-court-of-the-state-of-delaware/depositions-and-discoery/rule-26-general-provisions-governing-discovery" rel="noreferrer">their Rule 26</a> is close to the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rule_34" rel="noreferrer">Federal Rule 34</a>. Especially interesting here is:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Del. R. Civ. P. Super. Ct. 26 (b) (1) In general. - <strong>Parties may obtain discovery regarding any non-privileged matter that is relevant to any party's claim</strong> or defense and <strong>proportional to the needs of the case</strong>, <strong>including the existence, description, nature, custody, condition and location of any</strong> documents, <strong>electronically stored information</strong> (EST), or tangible things and the identity and location of persons having knowledge of any discoverable matter. It is not ground for objection that the information sought will be inadmissible at the trial.  [...]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The hosts are employees of the defendant, the phones contain EST that is regarding the matter and relevant to Dominion's claim, and disclosure is proportional to the needs of the case. As such, The employer has to make them comply with discovery requests by the opposing party and hand over the text messages.</p>

<p>This was apparently part of the normal <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_(law)" rel="noreferrer">discovery</a> process. Discovery can compel disclosure from parties and even non-parties upon subpoenas. The lawsuit is in the Superior Court of the State of Delaware, so discovery is governed by Rules of Civil Procedure for the Superior Court of the State of Delaware, <a href="https://casetext.com/rule/delaware-court-rules/rules-of-civil-procedure-for-the-superior-court-of-the-state-of-delaware/depositions-and-discoery/rule-26-general-provisions-governing-discovery" rel="noreferrer">Rule 26</a> (as opposed to federal rules, but they are essentially the same).</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Through the discovery process, Dominion has gained access to internal Fox emails, and several network hosts and executives have sat for depositions, as has Fox Corp. chair Rupert Murdoch.</p>
<p>CBC, &quot;<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/fox-dominion-defamation-suit-1.6752030" rel="noreferrer">Fox's Murdoch called election fraud claims a 'Trump myth,' Toronto's Dominion says in court filing</a>&quot;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In <a href="https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/redacted-documents-in-dominion-fox-news-case/dca5e3880422426f/full.pdf" rel="noreferrer">Dominion's Brief in Support of its Motion for Summary Judgment</a>, it refers to discovery, saying (among other things):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Fox produced many text messages with a date stamp in &quot;UTC&quot; time...</p>
</blockquote>
