Fox Corp. Set To Go To Trial in Smartmatic $2.7 Billion Defamation Suit Against Network

Fox Corp lost its bid Thursday to not be included in the $2.7 billion defamation suit brought against Fox News by Smartmatic, an electronic voting systems company.

A New York state appeals court rejected Fox’s motion on Thursday in a five-judge panel decision. The ruling means the suit against Fox is set to go to trial unless the parties settle ahead of time, like Fox News did with Dominion Voting Systems last year for $787 million. Smartmatic, like Dominion, sued Fox News over statements made on air following the 2020 presidential election suggesting the companies engaged in voter fraud to steal votes from then-President Donald Trump.

Fox told Mediaite in a statement after the ruling, “We will be ready to defend this case surrounding extremely newsworthy events when it goes to trial. As a report prepared by our financial expert shows, Smartmatic’s damages claims are implausible, disconnected from reality, and on their face intended to chill First Amendment freedoms.”

Smartmatic has sued Newsmax as well over similar claims made on-air. Newsmax settled

with Smartmatic in September as the jury selection began ahead of the trial. Smartmatic had first sued Newsmax in a Deleware court in November 2021 and the case was moved to trial after several motions to dismiss in February of 2023. Newsmax said that it “resolved the litigation brought by Smartmatic through a confidential settlement,” the details of which remain undisclosed.

Forbes broke down the state of Smartmatic’s lawsuit ahead of the latest dismissal ruling, reporting, “Smartmatic sued Fox News and its anchors Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo in February 2021, alleging they “engaged in a conspiracy to spread disinformation about Smartmatic,” and after a New York state judge ruled in March 2022 that the $2.7 billion lawsuit could move forward against those defendants but not against anchor Jeanine Pirro, an appeals judge ruled in February 2023 to restore the claims against Pirro and denied Fox’s motion to dismiss; the case remains pending.”

Smartmatic subpoenaed Trump last April and subsequently Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn in July. Bannon and Flynn were both heavily involved in pushing Trump’s rounldy debunked claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

Smartmatic, which is suing for almost a billion more than Dominion sued for, has already said through its lawyers that the company wants to go to trial and will pursue a full on-air retraction from Fox News for the claims the company alleges amount to defamation.

Dominion’s suit against Fox News resulted in months

of internal emails, text messages, and other communications from top Fox hosts and executives being made public ahead of what many observers and pundits expected would be the media trial of the century. Smartmatic’s subpoena of the Trump campaign, if held up by a judge, could result in a similar public unmasking of private sentiments from top Trump 2020 officials.

This is a developing story and has been updated.