Smartmatic has filed a $2.7 billion defamation and disparagement suit against Fox News owner Fox Corp. alleging Fox conducted a disinformation campaign against the election technology company. Fox said the suit is without merit.
"The Earth is round. Two plus two equals four. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the 2020 election for President and Vice President of the United States. The election was not stolen, rigged, or fixed. These are facts. They are demonstrable and irrefutable," the suit asserts in its introduction.
Smartmatic cited Fox news reports it said had repeated false claims that Smartmatic had "fixed and rigged" the 2020 election.
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“Fox News engaged in a conspiracy to spread disinformation about Smartmatic. They lied, and they did so knowingly and intentionally. Smartmatic seeks to hold them accountable for those lies,” said Smartmatic’s attorney J. Erik Connolly of Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff, LLP, in announcing the suit.
The suit claims that Fox made over 100 false statements and implications to the effect that Smartmatic had stolen the 2020 election, when that was false. In addition, it said, it had only provided election services and technology to Los Angeles county (a state the President lost by over five million votes).
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The suit was filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York. Fox News staffers Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, as well as Rudy Giulliani and former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell were also named in the suit.
Smartmatic suggested it might settle the suit out of court, but only if it got "appropriate compensatory damages, punitive damages, and full and complete retraction of the disinformation on all of Fox’s platforms."
That doesn't sound like it going to happen, at least not without a fight.
“Fox News Media is committed to providing the full context of every story with in-depth reporting and clear opinion," the company said in response to the suit. "We are proud of our 2020 election coverage and will vigorously defend this meritless lawsuit in court.”
Fox News Media also points out that in December it aired the fact-checking segments on both Fox News Channel and Fox Business: Sunday Morning Futures (Fox News Channel): Justice with Judge Janine (FNC): and Lou Dobbs Tonight (Fox Business Network):
