Fox and Smartmatic Separately Seek Summary Judgments in $2.7 Billion Defamation Lawsuit Over 2020 Election Fraud

In separate filings Wednesday, Fox Corporation and Smartmatic sought summary judgments in the voting systems company’s $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against the conservative-leaning news network over claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Fox’s effort came after a New York appeals court rejected its bid to dismiss the suit in January. In court documents obtained and reviewed by TheWrap, its strategy in pursuing a summary judgment — which calls on Judge David Cohen to decide the case without a full trial — is highlighting the ways in which Smartmatic differs from the Dominion voting systems company. (By contrast, Fox News reached a $787 million settlement with Dominion over its election fraud claims in April 2023.)

Fox argues that unlike Dominion, Smartmatic at the time of the 2020 election was a “failing business” mired in controversy and scandal and it’s now looking for a “litigation lottery ticket.”

Smartmatic, meanwhile, argued in its competing request for summary judgment that Fox News knew that the claims of election fraud it promoted after President Joe Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump were false, but that they became standard practice across the network as an audience strategy to boost ratings. That strategy, it said, cost the company billions of dollars. It argued that a jury should decide the damages owed.

“Fox made Smartmatic the central villain in their manufactured conspiracy,” the filing said. 

Co-defendants in Smartmartic’s 2023 defamation lawsuit against Fox Corporation also include on-air personalities Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartiromo (pictured above), along with Debi Segura, the administrator of the late Lou Dobbs’ estate.

In its filing Wednesday, Fox argued that all of its hosts, including the named co-defendants, “accurately reported the president’s claims while also providing their opinions on a fast-moving and evolving issue of national importance.” Trump and his political allies to this day say the 2020 election was rigged against him; Fox argues that their on-air talent were simply reporting on that fact. Any additional opinions shared are protected under the First Amendment.

Smartmatic’s lawsuit, Fox said, is intended to “to chill speech and generate headlines.”

Smartmatic has previously settled defamation lawsuits with other conservative news networks over the voting fraud claims: Newsmax revealed in a regulatory filing in March that it paid out $40 million to the Florida-based voting systems company, and One America News Network (OAN) settled its own suit in April 2024.

The post Fox and Smartmatic Separately Seek Summary Judgments in $2.7 Billion Defamation Lawsuit Over 2020 Election Fraud appeared first on TheWrap.