Pair reach agreement days before case, filed after rightwing network aired false voter claims, was due to go to trial

Pair reach agreement days before case, filed after rightwing network aired false voter claims, was due to go to trial

The voting machine company Smartmatic and the conservative outlet Newsmax have settled a closely watched defamation lawsuit days before it was set to go to trial in Delaware.

A spokesman for the Delaware courts said the case had been settled on Thursday. He did not offer additional details. The trial was set to begin in Wilmington on Monday.

The terms of the settlement are not public.

…

After the 2020 election, Newsmax aired several false claims about the company, whose voting machines were only used in Los Angeles county in 2020. The network repeatedly aired false claims from Trump allies that the software was widely used across the country and that it had been hacked to change votes.

    • themeatbridge
      3•19 hours ago

      Smartmatic is a business, and they need to answer to shareholders. Part of the deal was almost certainly guarantees from Republicans that they wouldn’t block future contracts.

      • @mosiacmango@lemm.ee
        2•16 hours ago

        A “news” company can’t promise that. They can pay ludicrious amounts of money though, which is likely what happened. Fox news gave them nearly an entire year of revenue. I’d expect this to be about the same.

  • @style99@lemm.ee
    1•15 hours ago

    To use a Fox “news” template to describe this:

    Newsmax unsurprisingly chose to settle its case with Smartmatic on the eve of trial after a series of major setbacks devastated its case. Fox’s claims against Smartmatic are similarly impaired, unsupported by the facts and intended to destroy our democratic freedoms. We look forward to Smartmatic getting a similar settlement out of Fox.