Voting company Smartmatic’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News can move forward—but challenges against other defendants including Sidney Powell cannot—a judge ruled Tuesday, as Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems pursue 11 defamation lawsuits over baseless election fraud claims about their voting machines.
Key Facts
New York Supreme Court Justice David B. Cohen ruled Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News can move forward—as well as its claims against anchors Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo—after Smartmatic sued them in February 2021, alleging the defendants “engaged in a conspiracy to spread disinformation about Smartmatic.”
Cohen dismissed Smartmatic’s allegations against far-right attorney Sidney Powell and Fox anchor Jeanine Pirro, and dismissed some claims against attorney Rudy Giuliani but let others move forward.
Smartmatic has separately sued Powell in federal court, which is still pending.
Smartmatic sued MyPillow and CEO Mike Lindell in January for defamation and deceptive trade practices in federal court, alleging the CEO spread “lies” about the company and “intentionally stoked the fires of xenophobia and party-divide for the noble purpose of selling his pillows.”
Smartmatic also sued One America News Network (OANN) in federal court and Newsmax in Delaware state court in November, alleging both networks “reported a lie” and spread fraud claims about the company—whose machines were only used in California in 2020—knowing they were false; those lawsuits and Lindell’s suit are still pending.
Denver-based Dominion filed its first lawsuit in January against pro-Trump attorney Powell, who has been the most prominent person spreading the fraud claims, seeking $1.3 billion in damages, and a federal judge denied Powell’s motion to dismiss the case in August.
U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols also ruled lawsuits Dominion filed against Giuliani, MyPillow and Lindell can move forward—though the cases against them and Powell may not go to trial until late 2023 or 2024, based on a schedule the judge set in early March.
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