(This story from April 12 corrects the third paragraph regarding name of judge)

By Jan Wolfe

WASHINGTON (Reuters). A Dominion Voting Systems Inc defamation case against Fox News alleges that Fox News tried to raise its ratings and falsely claimed the voting system company rigged President Donald Trump’s 2020 U.S. election.

Eric Davis of Delaware’s state court stated in a written order that Friday that the judge was reserving Denver-based Dominion’s lawsuit for trial. Fox Corp. had asked Owens for an early 2024 trial date.

Davis set aside five week for the trial. It could be the beginning of many involving baseless accusations made by different news outlets regarding Dominion’s tech. Dominion brought its suit against Fox News in March 2021.

Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and others associated with Trump’s campaign floated conspiracy theories that Dominion rigged the vote totals during the week following the Nov. 3, 2020 election, in which Republican Trump was defeated by Democrat Joe Biden.

Dominion filed lawsuits for defamation against several Trump associates, such as Powell and Giuliani, along with conservative TV networks Newsmax, One America News, and Newsmax. Smartmatic is another election technology company at the heart of conspiracy theories.

According to the defendants, they made comments on public concerns and were free speech as protected under the First Amendment of U.S. Constitution.

In December, Davis ruled in favor of a Fox News request to dismiss Dominion’s lawsuit. Owens stated in his ruling that Dominion could have a valid defamation case. He allowed Dominion to keep seeking documents from Fox and witness testimony.

Fox News reps called Dominion’s suit “baseless” but stated the network will continue to defend itself.

A Fox spokesperson stated that “as we have maintained FOX News, together with every other news organization throughout the country, vigorously covered breaking news surrounding this unprecedented 2020 election,” in December.

Representatives from Fox News or Dominion didn’t immediately respond to queries on Tuesday.