Since 2002, when Fox News first overtook CNN as the most-watched cable news channel, one thing has been as certain and predictable as its dominance: Every time a Democrat wins the White House, the right-leaning network’s ratings take a momentary dip.

That happened after the election of President Biden in 2020, too. But the reaction inside Fox was far different than before.

There was panic. From the chairman of Fox Corporation on down, executives scrambled as they tried to keep viewers tuned in, believing they were facing a crisis. Now, because of the decisions made after former President Donald J. Trump’s loss, Fox News is reckoning with a threat that could prove far more serious.

A $1.6 billion defamation suit from Dominion Voting Systems claims Fox knowingly spread false information about the role of the firm’s election technology in a made-up conspiracy to flip votes. On Tuesday, the two sides will present oral arguments before a judge in Delaware state court as they prepare for a trial next month.

Fox has insisted that it wasn’t presenting claims about Dominion as fact but was reporting and opining on them as any news organization would.

As part of the suit, Dominion obtained thousands of internal Fox emails and text messages and deposed dozens of Fox employees. That evidence shows in extraordinary detail how the network lost its way in the weeks after the election. Here is a timeline of that fateful period, as told in court filings. Some of these exchanges have been lightly condensed for clarity.

Nov. 3, 2020

A Sales Record

On Election Day, Fox News was riding high. A draft of an internal memo written by the executive who oversees advertising for the network, Jeff Collins, described the sales records the channel had just set.

Election Update News

• 11 of the top 15 revenue days in Fox News history occurred since the first presidential debate on 9/29

• Election Day saw the highest linear revenue in Fox News history despite significantly reduced commercial load …

• According to Kantar, Fox News booked more political revenue than any other broadcast or cable network.

Nov. 8

‘A Lot … to Think About’

But a few days later, when Mr. Biden was declared the president-elect by all the major news organizations, including Fox, viewership started to fall. The company’s top executives, including Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox Corporation, and Suzanne Scott, the chief executive of Fox News Media, noticed.

In an email to Ms. Scott, Mr. Murdoch wrote:

SUBJECT: Ratings

Getting creamed by CNN! Guess our viewers don’t want to watch it. Hard enough for me!

They’ll return. (Not for Chris Wallace!)

Laura Ingraham very good and gracious.

Anyway, football today!

A half-hour later, Ms. Scott forwarded the email to Jay Wallace, the president of Fox News. She described her recent discussion with Mr. Murdoch and his son Lachlan, the chief executive of Fox Corporation, about how the network could begin to regroup post-Trump:

SUBJECT: Fw. Ratings

Long talk with KRM and Lachlan (told them first 72 hours will be the worst of it) they are expecting

-major overhaul of polling (WSJ doing same and will no work with NBC)

-audiences don’t want to see too much of the Mayor Pete’s and Coons etc in the news hours. Need to be careful about bookings next 2 months - especially in news hours

-breaking news reporting and investigative units need to get back in the game been beaten by digital reporters on breaking news this past year.

Talk more tomorrow - a lot for your to think about this week.

Nov. 10 and 11

‘It’s All Our Viewers Care About’

A week after the election, a consensus quickly hardened inside the network: It could not continue to lose viewers to a much smaller right-wing cable news rival, Newsmax.

Dana Perino, a Fox News host and former spokeswoman for President George W. Bush, texted Colin Reed, a Republican strategist, about the worry brewing:

… But there is this RAGING issue about fox losing tons of viewers and many watching - get this - newsmax! Our viewers are so mad about the election calls (as if our calls would have been any different. It’s just votes!)

Another host, Tucker Carlson, texted with his producer, Alex Pfeiffer, about the fact that viewers were angry that Mr. Carlson had ignored allegations of voter fraud that night in his broadcast — a subject that Newsmax had been hammering:

Alex Pfeiffer: You told me to tell you if we are getting attacked on Twitter so I will. Many viewers were upset tonight that we didn’t cover election fraud.

Tucker Carlson: Yeah. Probably should have.

Pfeiffer: Yeah I didn’t get why we didnt. Assumed it was some sort of decision not to.

Pfeiffer: But it’s all our viewers care about now

Carlson: Mistake.

Carlson: I just hate that shit.

Pfeiffer: Yeah its honestly awful

Pfeiffer: did you see this? [Texts a tweet with an excerpt of a Washington Post article that quotes an anonymous Republican official who says Mr. Trump will eventually get tired of claiming he was cheated and leave office.]

Pfeiffer: Its like birtherism 2.0. A grassroots movement the GOP leadership thinks they can control and go away but this wont.

Nov. 12

‘I Do Not Know if This Is True or Not’

Around the same time, there was also concern that some of what Fox hosts and guests were alleging on the air might be wrong. Fox Business’s senior vice president of programming, Gary Schreier, wrote to a group of Fox executives to alert them about an unfounded rumor that the Fox Business host Lou Dobbs had just floated on the air. Mr. Schreier was evidently concerned it could become a public relations headache.

SUBJECT: Lou with Rudy FYI

Spoke about servers for the voting machines in foreign country. I do not know if this is true or not. Lou at the end of the segment said “This has the feeling of a coverup.”

Just in case it gets picked up.

Nov. 16

‘Everything at Stake Here’

Rupert Murdoch’s concerns remained focused on the continued ratings decline. In an email to Ms. Scott, he wrote:

SUBJECT: Items!

After you’ve settled in let’s talk about things. See today’s piece in Journal about Newsmax. These people should be watched, if skeptically.

Trump will concede eventually and we should concentrate on Georgia, helping any way we can. We don’t want to antagonize Trump further, but Giuliani taken with a large grain of salt. Everything at stake here.

Nov. 17

‘HUGE’

Quickly, the shows that peddled false information began to see a lift in ratings.

Mr. Schreier texted his boss at Fox Business, Lauren Petterson, about the viewership for “Sunday Morning Futures,” the political talk show hosted by Maria Bartiromo. But at the same time, the two executives appeared concerned that Dominion’s side of the story wasn’t being told on Mr. Dobbs’s show or Ms. Bartiromo’s.

Gary Schreier: You see smf ratings?

Lauren Petterson: Huge

Schreier: Like … HUGE. tentpole and then some.

Petterson: I think jay’s guidance needs to reach the Dobbs team. Thoughts?

Schreier: Sorry I actually called Jeff after the meeting. They do mention dominion responses each show he says. I emphasized to keep Doing it. What do you want to do about Maria? I am not sure she does that though. (State dominion denial.)

Nov. 19

‘Respecting Our Audience’

When Rudolph W. Giuliani and Sidney Powell, members of Mr. Trump’s legal team, held a news conference and spouted elaborate conspiracy theories about stolen votes, Kristin Fisher, a correspondent who covered the White House for Fox News, reported on it for the network. Her report was full of fact-checks and highly skeptical — too skeptical for her higher-ups at Fox.

Shortly after she got off the air, she received an angry call from her boss, Bryan Boughton. She described it at length in her deposition.

Q: What did Mr. (Bryan) Boughton say to you?

Kristin Fisher: He expressed his great unhappiness with my live shot. He emphasized that higher-ups at Fox News were also unhappy with it. And he told me that I needed to do a better job of respect — this is a quote — ‘respecting our audience.’

Q: Was it your understanding that you had done something that was disrespectful of Fox’s audience?

Fisher: No. I believed that I was respecting our audience by telling them the truth.

A few weeks after her coverage of the event, Ms. Fisher texted a colleague to complain that she had effectively been pulled off the air ever since:

I’m 100 percent being muzzled. After my Giuliani live shot and that six-minute long fact-check of Trump on SR (‘Special Report,’ the 6 p.m. Fox News program), I have had zero live shots from the White House. I’m being punished for doing my job. Literally. That’s it.

Ms. Fisher then explained that she was quitting in disgust:

I couldn’t defend my employer to my daughter while trying to teach her to do what is right. I couldn’t get over that. So I’m leaving six weeks paid leave on the table and taking a paycut.

Three producers who oversee Sean Hannity’s 9 p.m. program — Robert Samuel, Ron Mitchell and Tiffany Fazio — texted one another, saying privately what a disaster the news conference had been. At the same time, they saw how popular the fraud narrative was with their audience.

Robert Samuel: dont know how closely you’ve looked at our charts this week but audience much more interested in voter irregularities than covid hypocrisy and race/obama’s book tour, at least for our show

Samuel: Trump and his team have put us in an awful spot

Ron Mitchell: Totally agree. They turned it into an instant circus.

Tiffany Fazio: This is just not good

Then Mr. Hannity and Ms. Fazio separately discussed the bind the network was in, and criticized Ms. Fisher for reporting accurately on claims of fraud.

Fazio: Fox clearly panicking. They purchased an add promoting you, Tucker and Laura during the NFL game tonight.

Sean Hannity: It’s very bad. I saw Fisher live. Wrote Suzanne and she said she’s already on it.

Hannity: Tiff irreparable harm to the brand imho

And Ms. Scott was on it. She emailed Jay Wallace, the president of Fox News, to complain.

SUBJECT: Kristen Fisher today at the top of Dana’s show

I’m getting major incoming on her editoralizing at the top of Dana’s show and her dismissive tone and indifference to the audience.

We need to manage this.

I saw she just did a hit in Cavuto. I hope she didn’t double down.

I can’t keep defending these reporters who don’t understand our viewers or how to handle stories.

Nov. 22

‘It’s a Great Story if It’s True’

Mr. Dobbs, whose program uncritically spread some of the most outlandish claims about Dominion, privately expressed doubts about the veracity of Ms. Powell’s accusations. He shared them with his producer, John Fawcett, who said he also wasn’t sure Ms. Powell could back up what she was saying, including about Brian Kemp, the governor of Georgia. Still, Mr. Dobbs continued to invite her on his show.

John Fawcett: I just don’t think she is verifying anything she is saying.

Fawcett: Like Brian Kemp is taking bribes. I’m sure he is, but where is the proof

Lou Dobbs: Sidney will make us all sick of the “Kraken” soon! And I hope it’s a provable narrative–cuz it’s a great story!

Fawcett: It’s a great story if it’s true, otherwise it just a Fairytale!

Nov. 29

‘Our Audience Doesn’t Want to Hear About a Peaceful Transition’

Ms. Bartiromo’s “Sunday Morning Futures” was another consistent source of falsehoods about Dominion. She and her producer, Abby Grossberg, texted at length about the fraud allegations and how they resented the pressure they were getting from certain executives to shift course.

At one point, she and Ms. Grossberg discussed the interview that Ms. Bartiromo had just conducted with Mr. Trump. Ms. Bartiromo asked Ms. Grossberg if she should have also asked the president about his plans for a smooth transition.

Maria Bartiromo: Do you think we shdvgsve just stayed the extra 5 minutes & talked about peaceful transition ect

[The two text about other matters for a few messages.]

Abby Grossberg: To be honest, our audience doesn’t want to hear about a peaceful transition

Grossberg: They still have hope.

Then the two make disparaging comments about the head of weekend programming at Fox, David Clark, who had been critical about the Trump interview. Mr. Clark has emerged as one of several Fox executives who started raising concerns about the network’s coverage of unfounded voter fraud allegations.

Grossberg: When he called, that moron clark said he would have liked more time with Ken Starr. “I didn’t hear anything new” and then he again mentioned that it was a good space filler. Smug piece of s-t.

Grossberg: I told him the interview was viral and then suggest he rewatch at 3p because there was a lot to digest.

Grossberg: Clark just needed to get the final word in. I hate when he calls. Love when I thanked him for working on his vacation and he said “I lead by example.” F-u.

Bartiromo: What a moron

Jan. 6, 2021

Trump Phones Into Fox but Is Denied Airtime

Late in the afternoon on the day of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, with the halls only recently cleared of rioters, Mr. Trump called into Mr. Dobbs’s program and wanted to go on the air. Fox executives said no — their starkest action yet indicating how recklessly they believed the president was behaving.

Ms. Petterson, the president of Fox Business, home to Mr. Dobbs’s show, explained why in her deposition.

I didn’t think it would be responsible to have him go on the air. And what he intended to do was tell his side of the story while the Capitol is under siege, a woman is in critical condition and more people could get hurt. And he hadn’t at that point come out and, you know, asked the violence to be quelled. So I thought it would be irresponsible to put him on the air … it could impact a lot of people in a negative way.

A month later, on Feb. 5, Fox canceled Mr. Dobbs’s show.

Jan. 20

‘Pretty Much a Crime.’

After the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, even the most ardent Trump defenders like Mr. Hannity told their colleagues at Fox that they were appalled, the court filings show. Executives discussed yet another pivot for the network — this time firmly away from Mr. Trump.

Some of the most extensively documented disdain for Mr. Trump inside Fox came from the chairman himself, Rupert Murdoch. Repeatedly, the documents show, he expressed scorn for Mr. Trump and disgust at the direction that the president had led the Republican Party, which he said in his deposition was “destroying itself at the altar of Trump.” In one email on Inauguration Day, Mr. Murdoch wrote:

The more I think about McConnell’s remarks or complaint, the more I agree. Trump insisting on the election being stolen and convincing 25 percent of Americans was a huge disservice to the country. Pretty much a crime. Inevitable it blew up Jan. 6th. Best we don’t mention his name unless essential and certainly don’t support him. We have to respect people of principle and if it comes to the Senate, don’t take sides. I know he is being over-demonized, but he brought it on himself.

Mr. Trump has appeared on Fox far less frequently in the three years since. And Mr. Murdoch testified in his deposition that the two had not spoken since early 2020.