Newsmax paid $40M to settle Smartmatic defamation claims: Filing

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Source: The Hill

Conservative cable channel Newsmax paid $40 million to settle a 2020 election defamation lawsuit brought by voting systems software provider Smartmatic out of court, a new filing shows.

The payment, which was reported Thursday by Reuters, citing a regulatory filing, comes just months after the two sides agreed to settle Smartmatic’s defamation claim stemming from Newsmax’s coverage of the presidential contest.

Newsmax declined to comment on the settlement, but in a November statement said it “acknowledges that the Court found that allegations regarding whether the [2020 U.S. presidential election] and its results were somehow altered or manipulated by Smartmatic are factually false/untrue.”

Smartmatic had argued in court filings the conservative cable channel damaged its reputation by airing false claims about its software being promoted by top allies of President Trump such as Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani.

Smartmatic remains in litigation with Fox News, which settled a separate defamation lawsuit voting systems provider, Dominion, for $787 million in 2023.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5194718-newsmax-smartmatic-defamation-2020-election/

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1. MaddowBlog-Newly released filing reveals Newsmax's $40 million settlement with Smartmatic

Last edited Fri Mar 14, 2025, 05:43 PM - Edit history (1)

A case involving a conservative media outlet and a voting machine company has been resolved — but a similar case involving Fox News remains.

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https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/newsmax-smartmatic-defamation-settlement-rcna196492

After Donald Trump’s re-election defeat in 2020, a variety of far-right media outlets eagerly embraced the Republican’s baseless conspiracy theories about the outcome, fueling widespread confusion among conservative voters. But as part of the broader partisan push, some of these outlets also took aim at voting machine companies, falsely claiming that they were part of a nefarious electoral scheme.

The fact that these claims weren’t true did not sit well with the companies — or their lawyers. Indeed, as NBC News reported, the legal fallout from this mess is still unfolding.

Newsmax agreed to pay Smartmatic $40 million as part of a settlement last year following the voting technology company’s election defamation lawsuit against the right-wing news outlet, according to a new regulatory filing. The settlement, reached in September, included a cash payment and an option to purchase stock in Newsmax, the media company said in its filing. Newsmax said payments totaling $20 million have already been made, with the rest coming before July.

....What’s more, let’s not forget that one big case that still has not been resolved: About a year ago, a New York judge ruled that a $2.7 billion defamation suit filed by Smartmatic against Fox could continue, and in January, a state appeals court came to the same conclusion.

Time will tell what becomes of that case — another settlement remains a distinct possibility — but as the legal process advances, it’s worth keeping in mind that Smartmatic’s lawsuit poses real danger for Fox. The Washington Post published an analysis a while back that helped summarize the significance of the dispute.

Many of the allegations against Smartmatic were similar to those against Dominion, and Smartmatic was often lumped in with Dominion in the same allegation. They included the false claims that Dominion machines used Smartmatic software to rig the election. They included the claim that Smartmatic was used to rig elections before and that its purported foreign ties demonstrated that. Smartmatic’s software was also cast as eminently flawed and even deliberately hackable. Indeed, Smartmatic was often cast as the actual conduit for stealing the election.

Fox has denied any wrongdoing. Watch this space.