Newsmax settled a major 2020 presidential election defamation lawsuit with Smartmatic hours after jury selection for the civil trial began on Thursday. The terms of the last-minute agreement remain unknown.
“Newsmax is pleased to announce it has resolved the litigation brought by Smartmatic through a confidential settlement,” the cable network said in a statement.
The conservative news company, however, faces a separate election-related defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, in which they deny all wrongdoing.
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Lawyers for Smartmatic accused Newsmax of destroying texts and emails showing that executives knew they were peddling false claims about the 2020 presidential election.
Christian Veron/ReutersSmartmatic’s suit against Newsmax, which began in 2021, revolved around false claims touted by Donald Trump and his allies that the 2020 election was “rigged” by Smartmatic software and others. According to the voting technology company, Smartmatic’s reputation was destroyed by said election conspiracies.
Judge Eric M. Davis, who was overseeing the defamation case, already ruled that the conservative network aired untruthful statements about Smartmatic’s role in the election.
Should the case have gone to trial, it would have been the first time a jury decided whether a cable news network made defamatory remarks about a voting technology company related to the 2020 election. In April 2023, Fox News settled a similar suit filed by Dominion for $787.5 million.
“We are very pleased to have secured the completion of the case against Newsmax,” a spokesperson for Smartmatic said, before focusing on the companies pending litigation against Fox for their alleged “disinformation campaign.”
Smartmatic’s case against Fox News is expected to go to trial in 2025.
Fox News has denied all of Smartmatic’s allegations of wrongdoing, and remained defiant in a statement to the Daily Beast Thursday.
“Smartmatic unsurprisingly chose to settle its case with Newsmax on the eve of trial after a series of major setbacks devastated its case. Those setbacks included: the fact that Smartmatic’s President and Co-Founder, as well as one current and one former executive, were federally indicted for bribery in obtaining key businesses in the Philippines; Smartmatic was forced to cut its damage claims from $1.7 billion to $370 million to avoid evidence of those indictments; and the Delaware Judge ruled that Smartmatic could not recover punitive damages. Smartmatic’s claims against Fox are similarly impaired, unsupported by the facts and intended to chill First Amendment freedoms. We look forward to defending this case when it goes to trial.”
The voting technology company settled a separate claim against One America News Network in April.
Smartmatic, for its part, pledged to keep fighting to clear its name.
“Lying to the American people has consequences. Smartmatic will not stop until the perpetrators are held accountable,” Smartmatic’s spokesperson continued.
