Voting technology company Smartmatic and the far-right network One America News said Tuesday that they had settled a defamation lawsuit stemming from the outlet’s lies about the 2020 election. “The case has been resolved pursuant to a confidential agreement,” OAN attorney Chip Babcock told CNN. Both parties declined to share details about the settlement.
A judge has scheduled a major defamation case against right-wing cable channel Newsmax to go to trial in late September, putting the battle over 2020 election lies front-and-center at the peak of the 2024 campaign. Newsmax and the voting technology company Smartmatic could still reach an out-of-court settlement, and further delays are possible. But if the Sept. 24 trial date holds, the fallout from former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election will be on full display as he tries to return to the White House.
A leader in the effort to strip Fox Corp. of a TV station license is renewing calls for a federal regulatory hearing based on recent developments in a defamation case about Fox News Channel’s 2020 election coverage. Former Fox executive Preston Padden, in a filing with the FCC Thursday, called on the agency to hold a hearing on Fox’s fitness to continue as the licensee of WTXF Philadelphia (Fox 29) based on revelations in Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation case against Fox.
The court’s order advanced claims from both sides. The dispute centers on allegations that Fox, in an attempt to boost ratings, capitalized on the popularity of former President Donald Trump by fabricating a narrative that Smartmatic caused him to unfairly lose the election.
Rupert Murdoch is set to be questioned under oath on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of voting technology company Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp. over coverage of debunked vote-rigging claims involving the 2020 U.S. presidential election, a person familiar with the matter said. Murdoch will be deposed in Los Angeles, according to that person, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The deposition does not appear on the public docket for the case.
A Delaware judge on Wednesday rejected Newsmax’s attempt to throw out part of a defamation case brought by the election technology company Smartmatic against the right-wing network. Smartmatic sued Newsmax after the network repeatedly aired false claims about the 2020 election — specifically the lie that the company’s software was involved in an international plot to rig the presidential election against Donald Trump. The company later updated its lawsuit to add 26 additional examples of alleged defamation, claiming it found the new material during the discovery process, when Newsmax turned over “hundreds of hours” of broadcasts.
Exclusives
Fox News has agreed to give voting technology company Smartmatic additional documents about Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch and other senior corporate executives. Smartmatic is suing the network for $2.7 billion over its airing of 2020 election lies. The agreement was announced Wednesday at a court hearing in Manhattan. New York Supreme Court Judge David Cohen scheduled the hearing after Smartmatic raised concerns about whether Fox was complying with its pretrial obligations to turn over relevant evidence.
The voting machine company has filed a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox for its coverage of baseless election fraud charges in the 2020 election.
A New York state appeals court rejected Fox News’ bid to dismiss a multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuit accusing the network of falsely accusing an electronic voting systems company of helping rig the 2020 U.S. presidential election to favor Joe Biden over Donald Trump. In a 5-0 decision, the Appellate Division in Manhattan said Smartmatic USA alleged in “detailed fashion” how Fox News and some anchors and guests “effectively endorsed and participated in (defamation) with reckless disregard for, or serious doubts about” whether the company engaged in election fraud.
After a New York state judge denied its motion to dismiss a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Smartmatic, Fox News filed four separate answers in the case: Fox News, Fox Corp, Maria Bartiromo and Lou Dobbs.
A New York State Supreme Court judge ruled that a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit filed against Fox News Channel by the voting-technology company Smartmatic can proceed, despite Fox’s motion to have the matter dismissed. The suit is the second of its kind that has cleared a potential legal hurdle and has been allowed to continue making its way through the courts.
Right-wing U.S. television network Newsmax Media on Monday countersued Smartmatic Corp., an election security firm that says it was defamed by Newsmax’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election. Smartmatic sued Newsmax in November for amplifying false claims that Smartmatic voting machines rigged the election against then-President Donald Trump, who persists in falsely claiming his defeat was the result of fraud.
Smartmatic, an election technology company that faced baseless accusations of rigging the 2020 election, earlier filed a similar lawsuit against Fox News.
Fox News filed another response to Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit, contending that its on-air personalities were protected by the First Amendment as they amplified President Donald Trump’s unfounded allegations of massive election fraud following the 2020 presidential election. “Smartmatic strains to make this lawsuit seem like a garden-variety defamation suit rather than a glaring threat to core First Amendment freedoms,” the company’s legal team, led by Paul Clement of Kirkland & Ellis, said in a brief filed in New York Supreme Court. The legal team also is representing Fox Corp., the parent company of Fox News.
The company was responding to a motion filed by Fox that argued that mentions of Smartmatic were part of its reporting on a newsworthy event.
Fox News personalities Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro contend that they were well within the bounds of First Amendment protection as they covered ultimately false claims that Smartmatic rigged the election results against Donald Trump.
The Rupert Murdoch-owned news network files a motion to dismiss Smartmatic’s blockbuster libel action. Now and down the road, the defendant will attempt to pin ultimate responsibility for wild tales of election fraud on Donald Trump and his lawyers.
Smartmatic USA said today that it filed a $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox Corp., threeof its hosts and two former lawyers for former President Donald Trump — Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell — for $2.7 billion, charging that the defendants conspired to spread false claims that the company helped “steal” the U.S. presidential election.
Voting machine companies, including Antonio Mugica’s Smartmatic, threaten defamation lawsuits against Fox, Newsmax and OAN.
