DOVER, Del. — A settlement was reached Thursday in a defamation lawsuit brought by Smartmatic, a company that makes electronic voting machines, against Newsmax, a conservative news source, for reporting claims made by Trump supporters about vote fraud in the 2020 election.
The settlement was made public just a few hours after the jury selection process began in the case that Smartmatic, based in Florida, had filed against Newsmax.
In November and December 2020, Smartmatic said that hosts and guests on the Newsmax show said things that were not true and were meant to hurt their reputation. These statements suggested that Smartmatic was involved in fixing the results and that its software was used to change the votes.
Newsmax argued that it was simply reporting on newsworthy allegations being made by Trump and his supporters, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and conservative attorney Sidney Powell. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press were said to be at risk by Newsmax in the case.
A prepared statement from Newsmax said, “Newsmax is pleased to announce that the lawsuit brought by Smartmatic has been settled in a way that keeps the details of the settlement secret.”
A statement from Smartmatic said that the company was happy that the case against Newsmax was over.
Newsmax says Smartmatic recently dropped its claims for damages worth more than $1 billion, but the terms of the deal were not made public.
Judge Eric Davis heard from Newsmax lawyer Howard Cooper last week that the company planned to ask Smartmatic witnesses why the company had originally asked for $1.7 billion in damages but is now only asking for $400 million.
A lawyer for Smartmatic, J. Erik Connolly, told the judge that the company was claiming $369.8 million in lost revenue opportunities because of the Newsmax reports, which they said hurt their image.
Connolly also told the judge that Smartmatic would only be asking for lost income damages from late 2020 to August of this year, which is when three current and former Smartmatic executives were charged with crimes. in Florida. It is said that the people charged planned to pay more than $1 million in fees to get Smartmatic voting machines put in the Philippines.
Newsmax said that the investigation and indictment should be shown to the jury as other reasons for any alleged damage to Newsmax’s image or loss of money that Smartmatic said was their fault.
The Delaware lawsuit was about stories that Newsmax ran over five weeks in late 2020. It is one of many lawsuits that have been filed because of stories that conservative news sites ran after the election.
Fox News is also being sued by Smartmatic for libel in New York. The company just recently settled a case in the District of Columbia against the Republican One America News Network.
Smartmatic said in a statement on Thursday, “We are now looking forward to our day in court against Fox Corp and Fox News for their disinformation campaign.” When you lie to the American people, bad things happen. Smartmatic won’t give up until the troublemakers are caught.
Fox responded to Smartmatic’s statement by saying that Smartmatic decided to settle with Newsmax because of a number of setbacks that happened before the trial, such as the Florida indictments and the subsequent drop in Smartmatic’s damage claims. Fox also said that Davis said Smartmatic could not ask for excessive damages.
Fox said in a statement, “Smartmatic’s claims against me are similarly weak, not based on facts, and meant to limit my First Amendment rights.” “We’re excited to see how this case turns out in court.”
In a similar way, Dominion Voting Systems sued people for defamation for spreading conspiracy theories that its poll equipment caused Trump to lose. Fox News and Dominion reached a $787 million settlement last year in a case that Davis was in charge of.
