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Published on 26 Sep 2024 • 2 minutes of reading
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DOVER, Del. (AP) – A settlement was reached Thursday in a defamation lawsuit filed by the maker of electronic voting machines targeted by an ally of former President Donald Trump against a conservative news outlet that spread allegations of vote manipulation in the 2020 election.
The settlement was announced just hours after jury selection began in a lawsuit filed by Florida-based Smarmatic against Newsmax.
Smartmatic said Newsmax program hosts and guests made false and defamatory claims in November and December 2020 suggesting that Smartmatic was involved in fabricating the results and that software was used to switch votes.
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Newsmax insists it only reports news allegations made by Trump and his supporters, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and conservative attorney Sidney Powell. Newsmax said the lawsuit is a threat to freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
“Newsmax is pleased to announce that it has settled the litigation brought by Smartmatic through a confidential settlement,” Newsmax said in a prepared statement.
Smartmatic said in a prepared statement that the case against Newsmax is over.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but Newsmax said Smartmatic recently dropped claims for more than $1 billion in damages.
Howard Cooper, a lawyer for Newsmax, told Judge Eric Davis in a pretrial hearing last week that Newmax planned to question Smartmatic’s witness about whether the company had previously asked for $1.7 billion in damages, but now only demanded $400 million.
J. Erik Connolly, a lawyer for Smartmatic, told the judge that the company was asserting lost revenue opportunities valued at $369.8 million, based on the purported damage to the reputation of the Newsmax report.
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Connolly also told the judge that Smartmatic will seek compensation for lost income only for the period from late 2020 to August of this year, when three current and former Smartmatic executives were indicted on criminal charges. in Florida. The indictment included an alleged scheme to pay more than $1 million in bribes to place Smartmatic voting machines in the Philippines.
Newsmax argued that the investigation and indictment should have been presented to the jury as alternative grounds for the reputational damage or economic loss alleged by Smartmatic to Newsmax.
The Delaware lawsuit, which focused on Newsmax reporting over a five-week period in late 2020, is one of several reports from conservative news outlets following the election.
Smartmatic is also suing Fox News for defamation in New York. The company recently settled a lawsuit in the District of Columbia against One America News Network, another conservative outlet.
“We now look forward to our day in court against Fox Corp and Fox News for their disinformation campaign,” Smartmatic said in a statement Thursday. “Lying to the American people has consequences. Smartmatic will not stop until the perpetrators are held accountable.
Dominion Voting Systems also filed several defamation lawsuits against people who spread conspiracy theories blaming election equipment for Trump’s defeat. Last year, in a case led by Davis, Fox News settled with Dominion for $787 million.
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