Judge Allows Smartmatic’s $2.7 Billion Suit Against Fox News to Proceed
On election day in 2020, Donald Trump tried to falsely claim victory before all of the votes were counted. Trump ended up humiliated once it was revealed that he had lost by more than 7 million votes and the same electoral margin by which he beat Hilary Clinton.
In a desperate attempt to appease him, Conservative media outlets began to call the accuracy of voting machines into question. In response, Smartmatic, the company behind one of the machines used, sued Fox News. This week, a judge in New York allowed the $2.7 billion lawsuit to proceed.
Judge David A. Cohen wrote, “Even assuming that Fox News did not intentionally allow this false narrative to be broadcasted, there is a substantial basis for plaintiff’s claim that, at a minimum, Fox News turned a blind eye to a litany of outrageous claims about plaintiffs unprecedented in the history of American elections, so inherently improbable that it evinced a reckless disregard for the truth.”
There is good news for some Maga media members as the judge dismissed the claims against Sidney Powell and Jeanine Pirro. The judge, however, refused to dismiss the claims against Rudy Giuliani, Maria Bartiromo, and Lou Dobbs.
Fox responded in a statement:
“While we are gratified that Judge Cohen dismissed Smartmatic’s claims against Jeanine Pirro at this early stage, we still plan to appeal the ruling immediately. We will also continue to litigate these baseless claims by filing a counterclaim for fees and costs under New York’s anti-SLAPP statute to prevent the full-blown assault on the First Amendment which stands in stark contrast to the highest tradition of American journalism.”
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