Newsmax and Smartmatic settle 2020 election defamation lawsuit: NPR

Once again, a voting technology company has settled its defamation lawsuit over false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election before trial began – in this case, Smartmatic USA's lawsuit against the conservative network Newsmax.

Thursday's agreement came during the jury selection process. A four-week trial was scheduled to begin Monday in Delaware.

Neither side made any details of the settlement public.

Smartmatic emailed a statement saying it was “very pleased to have secured the conclusion of the case against Newsmax.” The statement said Smartmatic is now focusing on the related lawsuits against Fox News and Fox Corp.

“Lying to the American people has consequences,” the company’s statement said. “Smartmatic will not stop until the perpetrators are held accountable.”

Lawsuits related to the 2020 election continue

The case is just one of many lawsuits involving false claims of election fraud in 2020. In 2023, on the eve of opening arguments, Dominion Voting Systems has settled a defamation case against Fox News $787.5 million.

Dominion is also suing Newsmax in Delaware Superior Court Smartmatic is pursuing a case against Fox News in New York.

Smartmatic also settled a similar case against One America News Network earlier this year. The details of this agreement also remain confidential.

Two defamation cases are being handled by the same judge

The size of Fox's record settlement highlighted the severity of the network's recurring false claims about Dominion. Chief 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 to determine actual and punitive damages.

Davis also oversaw the Smartmatic case against Newsmax. He previously ruled that Smartmatic could not seek punitive damages beyond the direct losses the company could prove as a result of the defamation. “There is no evidence that Newsmax acted in bad faith toward Smartmatic,” the judge wrote.

Similar to Dominion's case against Fox, Smartmatic's case against Newsmax focused on false statements made on dozens of television shows in late 2020 in which hosts, producers and guests linked the voting machine maker to voting rights conspiracy theories.

Smartmatic only operated in Los Angeles County during the 2020 election. No fraud was alleged there. Given California's strong Democratic leaning, no amount of influence could have influenced the overall outcome.

The network's guests and hosts echoed allegations that Smartmatic software distorted votes in that year's election.

The challenged segments included: Newsmax anchors repeated and amplified exchanges from Fox News Voter fraud conspiracy theories promoted by Trump legal adviser Sidney Powell. Newsmax's Greg Kelly told viewers: “I believe her, but I don’t believe the critics.” Powell was sanctioned by a federal judge in 2021 and subsequently pleaded guilty to election interference in Georgia in 2023.

By the end of 2020, Newsmax began airing a disclaimer that there is no evidence linking Dominion or Smartmatic to vote manipulation and that other related conspiracy theories are denied. Next year, it send an apology and a retraction to allegations about a Dominion employee who faced death threats.

Threatening charges

In legal filings, Newsmax denied engaging in any defamatory actions against Smartmatic.

Still, further loosening its defense strategy may have proved embarrassing for Newsmax. In a one-day preliminary hearing earlier this month, the network's lawyers indicated that part of its trial strategy may have been based on the argument that the cable news network's producers did not know that Smartmatic and Dominion were two separate companies. The legal briefs also showed that Newsmax's on-air personalities were not held to its journalistic standards because those guidelines governed his “writing” more than his broadcasts.

Even before Davis ruled out the possibility of punitive damages, there was also some legal wrangling over Smartmatic's changing estimates of the company's value. Lawyers acknowledged a “$1 billion envelope” in the proposed valuation.

Smartmatic also received a public black eye this summer with the revelation by federal authorities brought charges against several company representativesincluding its president, over a bribery scheme in the Philippines. Davis had ruled that Newsmax would be allowed to present some evidence on the issue in its defense during the trial.

These developments increased the likelihood that litigation would produce better results for Smartmatic than settlement. And they could also come into play in the New York trial against Fox.

“It is not surprising that Smartmatic chose to settle its case with Newsmax on the eve of trial after a series of serious setbacks derailed the case,” a Fox News Media spokesperson said in a statement Thursday evening. “Smartmatic’s claims against Fox are similarly vitiated, unsupported by facts, and aimed at restricting First Amendment freedoms.”

The network said it looks forward to defending its case in court.