Smartmatic and OAN settle defamation suit
The voting t echnology company Smartmatic reached a settlement Tuesday in its defamation lawsuit a gainst One A merica News Network, a far- right broadcaster, over t he a mplification of election falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election.
The terms of the settlement were confidential.
Smartmatic filed the lawsuit in 2021, accusing OAN of a iring baseless c laims that Smartmatic had been involved in rigging the presidential election through its voting machines. On Tuesday, a filing for a dismissal of the case with prejudice, meaning it c annot be r etried, w as s ubmitted b y Smartmatic’s lawyers to the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Lawyers for Smartmatic and OAN did not immediately respond to r equests for comment.
OAN was one of s everal r ight- wing cable networks that broadcast conspiracy theories pushed by supporters of former President Donald Trump in the wake of his defeat in 2020, including claiming w ithout evidence that vote tallies i n critical s tates had been tampered with in order to h elp President Joe Biden win.
In its original complaint, Smartmatic said that it had been a v ictim of t he n etwork’s “decision to increase its viewership and influence by spreading disinformation” as it attempted to siphon off viewers from Fox News.
OAN repeatedly l inked Smartmatic t o a nationwide vote- rigging conspiracy, the complaint said, despite knowing there was no evidence a nd t hat Smartmatic’s technology a nd software h ad o nly been used in Los Angeles County during the election.
OAN, which was started by Herring Networks i n 2013 a nd i s a strong s upporter o f Trump, w as dropped by Directv and Verizon Fios in 2022 and is no longer available on any major carriers.
While this case has concluded, there are numerous ongoing lawsuits filed by Smartmatic a nd another election t echnology company, Dominion Voting Systems, against conservative news outlets over their 2020 election coverage.
OAN still faces a defamation l awsuit f rom Dominion. It settled a separate lawsuit i n September 2023 b rought a gainst t he network by Eric Coomer, a former Dominion executive.
Last A pril, Fox News agreed t o pay $ 787.5 million t o Dominion t o settle a defamation suit over the broadcasting of similar conspiracy t heories. T he last- minute settlement, believed to be the biggest ever in a defamation case, came on the day a t rial was set to begin.
In 2021, Smartmatic sued Fox News in New York state Supreme Court, seeking at least $ 2.7 b illion i n damages. That case is ongoing and is not expected to go to trial until 2025. Fox News has filed a counterclaim accusing Smartmatic of a frivolous lawsuit d esigned to suppress free speech.
Smartmatic and Dominion have separate lawsuits against the outlet N ewsmax, accusing it of repeatedly a iring the baseless vote- rigging c laims. B oth cases are expected to go to trial in September in Delaware Superior Court, where they w ill be o verseen by Judge Eric Davis, who presided over the Dominion vs. Fox News trial last year.