Smartmatic’s Case Against Fox News Gains Momentum From Dominion Settlement

A lawyer for election technology firm Smartmatic announced that the company will not accept any settlement in its case against Fox News less than the $787 million recently awarded to Dominion, another voting machine developer who waged a similar legal battle.

Smartmatic is also demanding that Fox News issues a retraction for its “lies” related to the 2020 election.

For weeks after the election, Fox employees and guests perpetrated a false theory that Smartmatic was a Venezuelan company working on the behalf of socialist and communist dictators to get President Joe Biden elected. It was also alleged on air that Smartmatic machines were used in six battleground states.

The company, although founded by Venezuelans, is headquartered in London and conducts elections internationally. Contrary to the claim that Smartmatic was used in swing states, Smartmatic voting machines were only used in Los Angeles County. Los Angeles County has not voted for a Republican president since 1988, and, since 1992, the Democratic presidential candidate has won by a margin of at least 25 points.

Smartmatic is seeking $2.7 billion in damages, and specifically named Fox hosts Maria Bartiromo and Lou Dobbs as directly responsible for spreading the lies.

Smartmatic’s suit was filed in New York, a state with a higher threshold for defamation cases than a state like Delaware where Dominion’s suit was filed.

Fox believes that Smartmatic has not met the threshold.

One Fox spokesperson said, “As a report prepared by our financial expert shows, Smartmatic’s damages claims are implausible, disconnected from reality, and on its face intended to chill First Amendment freedoms.”

Fox also questioned Smartmatic’s calculation of its losses, claiming that “Freedom of the press is foundational to our democracy and must be protected, in addition to the damages claims being outrageous, unsupported and not rooted in sound financial analysis, serving as nothing more than a flagrant attempt to deter our journalists from doing their jobs.”

Fox also will attempt to argue that their news anchors were merely repeating what Trump and his lawyers were claiming about the election machines.

“There is nothing more newsworthy than covering the president of the U.S. and his lawyers making allegations,” said the spokesperson.

Smartmatic will leverage the conclusion to the Dominion lawsuit, as well as much of the same evidence to prove that Fox acted with malice, a vital step when winning a defamation case.

Article by Jakob Mieszkowski-Lapping