A New York appeals court has rejected Fox Corp.’s request to toss a $2.7 billion defamation suit from voting machine manufacturer Smartmatic.
Smartmatic alleged in a suit that the Fox News parent company “effectively endorsed and participated in” a campaign suggesting that the voting machine company participated in election fraud by manipulating the results of the 2020 presidential election.
In the ruling from the New York Supreme Court First Appellate Department, a five-judge panel cited a Delaware court decision against Fox Corporation for defaming Dominion Voting Systems as precedent for implicating the Fox News parent company. Fox Corp. agreed to pay $787 million to Dominion in 2023.
In its initial 2024 complaint, Smartmatic accused Fox News of making “over 100 false statements and implications” about the company. Judges wrote this week that Smartmatic's claims that Fox News ran “a disinformation campaign in [its] post-election coverage” were enough to warrant a trial.
Smartmatic demands a jury trial, Bloomberg Law reports, alleging that Fox Corp. executives Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch directed Fox News to air “conspiracy theories” involving Smartmatic.
Smartmatic attorney Erik Connolly celebrated the ruling, telling Bloomberg that the network “attempted, and failed, to have this case dismissed, and it must now answer for its actions at trial.”
The ruling comes six weeks after Fox News competitor Newsmax settled with Smartmatic, announcing in a statement that its reporting on voting machine discrepancies in 2020 was “factually false/untrue” and retracted claims that the company was owned by the Venezuelan government. Neither party revealed any financial details of the settlement.
Shares