News anchors work the Newsmax booth during the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The network reached a settlement with voting technology company Smartmatic, which accused it of defamation following the 2020 presidential election.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images/AFP
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PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images/AFP
Once again, a voting technology company has settled its defamation lawsuit over false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election before the trial began – in this case, Smartmatic USA’s lawsuit against the conservative network Newsmax.
Thursday’s settlement came during the jury selection process. A four-week trial was scheduled to begin Monday in Delaware.
Neither side has made details of the settlement public.
Smartmatic emailed a statement saying it was “very pleased to have achieved a successful outcome in the case against Newsmax.” The release said Smartmatic is now shifting gears to focus on its related lawsuits against Fox News and Fox Corp.
“There are consequences to lying to the American people,” the company’s statement said. “Smartmatic will not stop until the perpetrators are held accountable.”
Lawsuits stemming from the 2020 elections continue
This case is just one in a series of lawsuits over false claims of fraud in the 2020 election. In 2023, on the eve of oral arguments, Dominion Voting Systems settled defamation case against Fox News for $787.5 million.
Dominion is also suing Newsmax in Delaware Superior Court, while Smartmatic pursues suit against Fox News in New York.
Smartmatic also settled a similar case against One America News Network earlier this year. The details of this settlement also remain confidential.
Two defamation cases overseen by the same judge
The scale of Fox’s record settlement speaks to the seriousness of the network’s recurring misrepresentations about Dominion. Presiding Judge Eric M. Davis had already ruled that Fox News knowingly and repeatedly defamed Dominion before the settlement. The only question before the jury was determining actual and punitive damages.
Davis also oversaw the Smartmatic v. Newsmax case. He previously ruled that Smartmatic could not seek punitive damages beyond the direct losses it could demonstrate as a result of its defamation. “There is no evidence that Newsmax acted with ill intentions toward Smartmatic,” the judge wrote.
Much like Dominion’s case against Fox, Smartmatic’s case against Newsmax centered on false statements made in dozens of television segments in late 2020 in which hosts, producers and guests linked the voting machine company to theories of the vote-switching plot.
Smartmatic only worked in Los Angeles County during the 2020 elections. No fraud was alleged there. Given California’s strong Democratic lean, no influence could have affected the overall outcome.
Guests and network hosts accepted allegations that Smartmatic software flipped votes in that year’s election.
Among the incriminated segments: Newsmax hosts retransmitted Fox News exchanges by amplifying them Election fraud conspiracy theories promoted by Trump legal advisor Sidney Powell. Newsmax Greg Kelly told viewers: “I believe her and I don’t believe the criticism.Powell was sanctioned by a federal judge in 2021 and later pleaded guilty to election interference in Georgia in 2023.
End of 2020, Newsmax started broadcasting a warning that no evidence linked Dominion or Smartmatic to vote manipulation and disavowed other related conspiracy theories. The following year, this issue an apology and retraction to allegations regarding a Dominion employee who received death threats.
Imminent accusations
In legal filings, Newsmax denied taking any defamatory action against Smartmatic.
Even so, continuing to roll out its defense strategy could have proved embarrassing for Newsmax. During a one-day preliminary hearing earlier this month, the channel’s lawyers indicated that part of its litigation strategy may have hinged on the argument that the news channel’s producers cable didn’t realize that Smartmatic and Dominion were two separate companies. . The legal memos also noted that Newsmax’s on-air personalities were not subject to its journalistic standards because those guidelines governed its “editorial” more than its broadcasts.
Even before Davis ruled out the possibility of punitive damages, there were also legal wranglings over Smartmatic’s changing estimates of its worth. The lawyers acknowledged a “billion-dollar variation” in the proposed valuation.
Smartmatic also received a black eye this summer with the revelation that federal authorities had indicted several company officialsincluding its president, for a corruption scheme in the Philippines. Davis had decided that Newsmax would be allowed to present evidence on this issue in his defense at trial.
These developments have made the likelihood that a trial will yield better results for Smartmatic than a regulation more daunting. And they could also come into play in New York’s lawsuit against Fox.
“Unsurprisingly, Smartmatic chose to settle its case with Newsmax on the eve of trial after a series of major setbacks devastated its case,” a Fox News Media spokesperson said in a statement Thursday evening. “Smartmatic’s claims against Fox are also weakened, unsupported by the facts, and intended to cripple First Amendment freedoms.”
The network said it looked forward to fighting its case in court.
