Fox Corporation and its editorial subsidiary Fox News Media have filed a motion for summary judgment that, if approved, would lead to the dismissal of a defamation case brought by voting machine manufacturer Smartmatic four years ago.
The case involves remarks made by guests of certain Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network programs following the 2020 presidential election, who disparaged the company as having engaged in fraud and deception with respect to the outcome of certain votes.
Fox settled a similar defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems two years ago. But the broadcaster says the Smartmatic case is substantially different from the one brought by Dominion because Smartmatic “was a failing business without a significant presence in the United States entering the 2020 Presidential Election.”
“Smartmatic was mired in a decade of business failure due to inadequate technology, missing certifications, and involvement in multiple highly controversial elections,” attorneys for Fox wrote in a brief filed on Wednesday. “Unlike Dominion, Smartmatic was founded by Venezuelans and was embroiled in claims of fraud in Venezuelan and Filipino elections well before any controversy arose over the 2020 Presidential Election.”
Fox also noted that some Smartmatic executives are now staring down legal cases of their own on criminal allegations of bribery and money laundering, elements that were not in play during the Dominion defamation case. The company has not been accused of legal wrongdoing, and at least one of the executives has since moved to dismiss the case against him.
“This lawsuit was manufactured to chill speech and generate headlines by a failing election company that was in financial free fall and saw allegations made by the President’s lawyers as a pathway to profitability,” attorneys for Fox said.
Smartmatic is seeking nearly $3 billion in damages. In January, a New York state appellate court allowed the case to move forward, opening the door for a potential jury trial.
In a competing motion for summary judgment filed this week, Smartmatic said Fox and its guests “systematically promoted the inflammatory and false narrative that Smartmatic…had deployed software throughout the United States to steal votes from President Trump.”
Smartmatic only provided voting machines in Los Angeles County during the 2020 presidential election. Despite this, Fox News guests “knowingly and purposely smeared Smartmatic in the past, and they are knowingly and purposely trying to smear it today,” the company alleged.
Fox denies this, and says Smartmatic is simply looking for a payday through litigation at a time when the company is mired in financial problems.
“This case is well past the point where unsubstantiated allegations can support a purported multibillion-dollar lawsuit,” Fox’s attorneys wrote. “What matters now is evidence, and the undisputed record contains no admissible evidence from which a reasonable jury could return a verdict in Smartmatic’s favor.”
Fox asserts that Smartmatic cannot prove that it suffered any lost business or other financial harm as a result of any comments made by its cable news guests.
“While Smartmatic claims scores of lost contract opportunities, there is no evidence that Fox News’s coverage caused a single former, existing, or potential customer to refuse to do business with Smartmatic,” Fox’s attorneys argued on Wednesday. “Not one of these potential clients has suggested that 13 segments on Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network had any influence on their decision not to hire Smartmatic. More fundamentally, the coverage that forms the basis of this lawsuit could not have possibly damaged Smartmatic because none of it was defamatory.”
The case against Fox News Media is one of several filed by Smartmatic since the 2020 election. Last September, the company reached a settlement with Newsmax over similar allegations of defamation. Materials made public through Newsmax’s pursuit of an initial public offering revealed the company settled the case for $40 million in cash. A settlement was also reached with One America News earlier this month, with terms of the agreement not disclosed.
