Were there any criminal investigations or regulatory actions tied to the civil suits against Fox News during 2020–2025?

1. The civil battlefield: settlements and discovery that fueled scrutiny

Civil suits over Fox News’ post‑2020 election coverage — most prominently Dominion’s $787.5 million settlement in April 2023 and continuing litigation by Smartmatic into 2025 — produced large document dumps and public revelations about editorial choices and internal concerns, and those civil procedures were the proximate vehicle for scrutiny rather than criminal indictments in the reporting provided ^{[1] [2] [4]}.

2. No documented corporate criminal charges tied to the defamation suits in this reporting

Across the sources given there is no explicit account of federal or state prosecutors bringing criminal charges against Fox News as a corporate defendant that were directly tethered to the Dominion or Smartmatic civil claims through 2025; coverage and legal reporting emphasize civil liability, discovery fights and settlements rather than criminal indictments against the company itself ^{[1] [5]}.

3. Hints of criminal‑law entanglement but not against Fox News as a corporation

Some reporting references “criminal charges” in adjacent litigation strategy — for example a judge denying a stay pending resolution of unspecified criminal charges (a procedural point referenced in NPR’s later coverage of Smartmatic litigation) — but the source does not identify corporate criminal prosecutions of Fox News as the subject of those charges, so the materials here cannot be read as documenting criminal cases against the network arising from the civil suits ^[3].

4. Regulatory attention and political probes were present but indirect

Regulatory and congressional avenues intersected with media controversies in this period: House Democrats opened inquiries into the FCC’s investigatory practices and whether agency actions were politically motivated, an investigation that touched the broader environment of media scrutiny although Reuters’ reporting frames it as a probe into FCC conduct rather than a regulatory sanction imposed on Fox linked to the defamation suits ^[6].

5. Advocacy groups and watchdogs pushed for investigations without producing criminal referrals in these reports

Outside organizations and legal groups pursued complaints and urged investigations into potential illegal coordination or improper conduct involving conservative media and officials — Democracy Forward’s 2020 efforts are an example of public interest litigation and requests for probes — but the supplied material does not document those efforts culminating in criminal charges against Fox News between 2020–2025 ^[7].

6. Two realities: civil remedies reshaped incentives; criminal enforcement remained elusive in the record

The Dominion settlement and ongoing Smartmatic litigation materially changed Fox News’ legal and financial exposure and produced troves of documents that invited public, regulatory and scholarly scrutiny, yet within the set of sources provided there is no clear instance of a criminal prosecution or formal regulatory penalty imposed on Fox News as a direct consequence of those civil suits through 2025 ^{[1] [2] [4]}.

7. What the sources cannot confirm and why that matters

The reporting at hand is explicit about civil outcomes and public demands for further inquiry but does not supply evidence of criminal indictments or regulatory sanctions against Fox News tied to the defamation litigation; absent additional sources, it is not possible to conclude that criminal or regulatory actions occurred beyond the civil realm as of 2025 in this dossier ^{[1] [3] [6]}.