Fox Corporation executive chairman Rupert Murdoch along with Fox News TV hosts including Tucker Carlson will likely be forced to testify during a trial next month over more than $US1 billion in defamation claims against the network by Dominion Voting Systems.

Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis told lawyers in the case on Wednesday (local time) that key witnesses will be expected to answer questions in person during the six-week trial, which is set to start on April 17. Davis said he’d rule later on Fox’s motion to dismiss the case before trial.

Dominion sued Fox, claiming it aired bogus claims by its hosts and guests who accused the voting-machine maker of rigging the 2020 presidential election to benefit Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. In pretrial depositions, Murdoch and several hosts said they doubted the allegations against Dominion.

During the hearing on Wednesday, Fox lawyers told the judge Dominion had inflated its damage estimates and couldn’t prove it had suffered more than $US1 billion ($1.5 billion) in losses.

The whopping estimate reflects Dominion’s manipulation of the damage calculation, including counting lost sales of voting machines that hadn’t actually occurred yet or been secured by contract, Fox attorney Erin Murphy argued.

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“There are other reasons” Dominion lost business, including operational and security problems with their machines, Murphy said.

Dominion’s lawyers contend key players at Fox never believed the fraud allegations but sat on their hands while lawyer Sidney Powell and other allies of then-President Donald Trump went on air to accuse Dominion of conspiring with Democrats and foreign governments to rig the vote.

The voting-machine maker says state governments across the US are shying away from its products in the wake of the false claims about election fraud, chopping its value by more than $US1 billion.