A new filing in the bombshell Dominion defamation suit against Fox News shows an anchor got reamed out from the very top over “smug” coverage that was too consistently “anti-Trump.”

Damning comments made by Fox News hosts and executives in private in the aftermath of the election were revealed in a recent filing by Dominion Voting Systems, which is suing Fox News for defamation and seeking $1.6 billion in damages. The suit has prompted copious doomsaying by a spectrum of pundits including Mediaite Editor-in-Chief Aidan McLaughlin and famed First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams.

On Monday afternoon, a new bombshell filing dropped that’s chock full of fresh revelations.

One section details the way then-Fox anchor Leland Vittert — who has since moved on to an anchor role at NewsNation — was targeted for criticism in a pipeline that went from Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott right to the control room because his “anti-Trump” coverage was deemed “smug and condescending”:

Meanwhile, Lachlan continued to advise on how Fox should cover the news related to the 2020 Presidential Election. For instance, he told Scott on November 14 during Fox’s coverage of a rally in support of Donald Trump that “News guys have to be careful how they cover this rally. So far some of the side comments are slightly anti, and they shouldn’t be. The narrative should be this is a huge celebration of the 25 president.” Ex.627; see Ex.130, L.Murdoch 116:4-119:11.

Scott responded: “Yes thanks”; and when Lachlan then criticized Leland Vittert’s coverage as “[s]mug and obnoxious,” Scott said she was “calling now” to direct Vittert’s producer to fix the issue. Ex.627; Ex.130, L.Murdoch, 122:1-15.

And indeed she did. Executive David Clark reported: “Also got called by Jay who heard from SS that Leland was being smug and condescending. I texted him and told him to cut it out and DC EP spoke to him.” Ex.628.

Lachlan even gave his input on the chyron that appeared at the bottom of broadcasts, telling Scott that “the ticker at bottom of screen is all wrong. Way too wordy and long. And anti trump whenever possible.” Ex.629

A Fox News PR spokesman furnished the following statement in response to the new filing:

Dominion’s lawsuit has always been more about what will generate headlines than what can withstand legal and factual scrutiny, as illustrated by them now being forced to slash their fanciful damages demand by more than half a billion dollars after their own expert debunked its implausible claims. Their summary judgment motion took an extreme, unsupported view of defamation law that would prevent journalists from basic reporting and their efforts to publicly smear FOX for covering and commenting on allegations by a sitting President of the United States should be recognized for what it is: a blatant violation of the First Amendment.