Fox News settled a bombshell defamation suit stemming from the 2020 election by paying Dominion Voting Systems nearly $800 million just hours after the the beginning of a trial that would have seen some of the cable news behemoth’s biggest stars take the witness stand.

The dramatic settlement also spared Fox News’ 92-year-old founder, Rupert Murdoch, from testifying. The deal in the Wilmington, Delaware, case came in the early afternoon, following the earlier selection of 12 jurors and a dozen alternates.

“The case has been resolved, and it’s been resolved because of you,” state Superior Court Judge Eric Davis told jurors.

A Fox News spokesperson confirmed the settlement had been reached.

“We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems,” the spokesperson said. “We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.”

Dominion lawyer Justin Nelson stated immediately after the deal that “we wish to express our deepest appreciation” to the court, and said the settlement was for just over $787 million.

Dominion sued Fox and its parent company Fox Corporation, claiming it knowingly spread false claims about its vote-counting equipment following the 2020 election. Fox guests and allegedly some hosts claimed Dominion had paid government bribes, switched votes, and was founded in Venezuela to rig elections for Hugo Chávez.

BREAKING: Fox News has abruptly settled the defamation case brought by Dominion, after a trial jury was selected and lawyers waited in the courtroom to give their openings

— Katie Robertson (@katie_robertson) April 18, 2023

“In the coming weeks, we will prove Fox spread lies causing enormous damage to Dominion,” a Dominion spokesperson said in a statement the morning of the trial. “We look forward to trial.”

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The trial was not to be televised, but likely would have seen some of the network’s biggest stars take the stand in addition to Murdoch and his son, Lachlan Murdoch. Prime-time hosts Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity were expected to testify, as well as Fox Business Network Maria Bartiromo and onetime weekend host Jeanine Pirro.

Dominion was prepared to show the jury internal messages from Fox hosts and executives in which they appeared to express knowledge that the claims about Dominion were false. The case could have had major implications for the media, as the landmark 1964 U.S. Supreme Court case Times v. Sullivan held that a news organization must be shown to have acted with actual malice to be found guilty of defamation.

Do you think the Russians care one iota about respecting U.S. law?

Well, you probably don’t, but President Joe Biden’s Energy Department is under the impression that President Vladimir Putin and his ilk will honor U.S. law as it relates to sensitive nuclear energy technology in Ukraine.

Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy firm Rosatom took over Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Enerhodar, Ukraine, after it invaded. On Tuesday, CNN reported that the Department of Energy (DOE) sent Russia an official letter on March 17, 2023, explaining that the power plant “contains US-origin nuclear technical data that is export-controlled by the [U.S.] Government” and could undermine U.S. national security if it fell into the wrong hands.

Ukrainian crew members are currently staffing the power plant while Russia manages it. It was taken off the Ukrainian grid for security purposes.

Per the media outlet, the DOE also let Russia know, “It is unlawful under United States law for non-authorized persons, including, but not limited to, Russian citizens and Russian entities, such as Rosatom and its subsidiaries, to knowingly and willfully access, possess, control, export, store, seize, review, re-export, ship, transfer, copy, manipulate such technology or technical data, or direct, or authorize others to do the same, without such Russian entities becoming authorized recipients by the Secretary of the US Department of Energy.”

At first glance, that letter reads more like the old FBI warning about copying and redistributing VHS tapes than any stern warning of international importance.

Of course, to state the obvious, it was also in violation of Ukrainian law for Russia to invade in the first place, but that didn’t stop the Kremlin from barging right into the country and wreaking havoc. In fact, for seven years straight now, Biden and his Democratic Party have warned that Russia does not respect the American way of life nor its laws and democracy.

It should be noted that as of October 2022, there was “no record of any current authorization to transfer this technology and technical data to any Russian national or entity,” according to the DOE.

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So, what exactly is this letter going to accomplish? Why would Russia — a country that the U.S. will help Ukraine fight until the end of World War III — care about U.S. law?

Isn’t it likely that Russia, alongside its new buddy China, is working around the clock to extract this data in ways unsusceptible to U.S. intelligence?

The real kicker in all of this is highlighted by CNN’s last line. The U.S. has been assisting Ukraine’s nuclear energy plant for quite some time out in the open.

In June 2021, the DOE’s website said that the U.S. “helped implement new maintenance procedures and operations at the reactor that should ultimately strengthen energy security” in Ukraine.

So, the Biden administration is intent on helping Ukraine achieve energy security, yet is content to weaken American energy independence by dismantling our fossil fuels industry and making us rely on foreign nations. In other words: Ukraine first. America last.