Newsmax apologizes to Dominion worker
NEW YORK — Newsmax apologized on Friday for airing false allegations that an employee for Dominion Voting Systems manipulated machines or tallies on Election Day to the detriment of former President Donald Trump.
Eric Coomer, security director at the Colorado-based firm, in turn dropped Newsmax from a defamation lawsuit.
The conservative news network, in a statement published on its website and to be read on TV, said that while it aired the accusations against Coomer made by Trump’s lawyers and supporters, it found no evidence that they were true.
Newsmax, which ran Dominion’s denials of the accusations when they were made, also said it had found no evidence that Coomer had spoken to “Antifa” or any partisan organization.
“We would like to apologize for any harm that our reporting of the allegations against Dr. Coomer may have caused to Dr. Coomer and his family,” the network said. He said in his lawsuit that he had gone into hiding because of death threats.
Coomer’s lawsuit also targets the Trump campaign, lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, columnist Michelle Malkin, the website Gateway Pundit, Colorado activist Joseph Oltmann and One America News Network. Those claims are continuing, a spokeswoman said.
Neither Newsmax nor a Coomer spokeswoman would comment on whether Coomer was paid anything to drop the company from his lawsuit.
Newsmax also told its audience, many of them Trump supporters that “many of the states whose results were contested by the Trump campaign after
the November 2020 election have conducted extensive recounts and audits, and each of these states certified the results as legal and final.”
Newsmax, based in Boca Raton, has been enjoying newfound popularity among the community of Donald Trump supporters, Republicans and conservatives after some turned away from their longtime media home at Fox News Channel. CEO Chris Ruddy said via email that “Millions are tuning into Newsmax because Fox has become old, stale and inconsistent.”
Newsmax wrote in the statement it would like to “clarify” its coverage of Coomer.
“While Newsmax initially covered claims by President Trump’s lawyers, supporters and others that Dr. Coomer played a role in manipulating Dominion voting machines, Dominion voting software, and the final vote counts in the 2020 presidential election, Newsmax subsequently found no evidence that such allegations were true,” the statement said.
Newsmax doesn’t comment on litigation matters, said spokesman Brian Peterson. “Our statement today is consistent with our previous statements that we have not seen any evidence of software manipulation in the 2020 election.”
Worried about then-President
Donald Trump’s fans dumping Fox News Channel — and turning instead to its rivals, like Newsmax — helped convince Fox to air false claims of election fraud, according to a lawsuit filed in March.
The voting technology company Smartmatic, pilloried by former President Donald Trump’s supporters in the conservative media world, has already gone after the most prominent player —Fox News — with an eye-popping $2.7 billion defamation suit.
Smartmatic threatened legal action in letters it sent in December to Fox, Newsmax and another small, far-right outlet, One America News. The company announced it had sent letters to Fox, Newsmax and OAN threatening legal action unless the outlets retracted what the company said were dozens of factually inaccurate and defamatory statements.
One week later, on Dec. 21, Newsmax put out an on-air statement acknowledging there were “several facts our viewers and readers should be aware.” The statement, also published on the Newsmax website, conceded that “No evidence has been offered that Dominion or Smartmatic used software or reprogrammed software that manipulated votes in the 2020 election.”