The voting machine company Smartmatic on Thursday filed a $2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox News, some of its on-air stars as well as former Trump campaign attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.
In the suit, filed in New York State Supreme Court, the company accuses the network and others of waging a “disinformation campaign” about the company’s operations during the 2020 presidential election that was damaging to its reputation.
The suit, which names Fox News on-air presenters Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro as defendants, accuses the network and its talent of creating a false narrative about the company to bolster their baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
A Fox News spokesperson said in a statement, “Fox News Media is committed to providing the full context of every story with in-depth reporting and clear opinion. We are proud of our 2020 election coverage and will vigorously defend this meritless lawsuit in court.”
In December 2020, Smartmatic announced it was seeking retractions from Fox News, Newsmax and One America News Network over their coverage of Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud many of which referenced companies like Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems — which has also pursued legal action against right-wing media outlets and personalities.
Later in December, Fox Business Network ran a fact-checking segment on “Lou Dobbs Tonight” that was rebroadcasted on Fox News Channel’s “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” hosted by Pirro, and “Sunday Morning Futures,” hosted by Bartiromo, through the weekend.
Right-wing personalities repeatedly made baseless claims against Smartmatic and Dominion that falsely suggested that the company’s technology and voting machines were manipulated to produce inaccurate counts and rig the election against Donald Trump.
Late last year, Smartmatic sent out legal notices and demand letters that “identify dozens of factually inaccurate statements made by each of the organizations as part of a ‘disinformation campaign’ to injure Smartmatic and discredit the 2020 U.S. election.”
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.
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