Voting machine company Smartmatic filed a lawsuit Thursday against Fox News and several of its top stars, along with Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, for pushing a false conspiracy theory involving the company’s machines, becoming the second voting company to seek retribution against the far right for using the voting machines in their attempt to overturn the election results.
The $2.7 billion lawsuit was filed Thursday in New York state court against Fox Corporation—Fox News’ parent company—and media personalities Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro, as well as attorneys Giuliani and Powell.
The far right has pushed baseless claims that Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems voting machines were used to fraudulently flip votes in the presidential election to Joe Biden, which were spread in part through right-wing media outlets like Fox News, Newsmax and One America News.
Smartmatic alleges in their lawsuit that Fox, Powell and Giuliani spread the conspiracy theory knowing it was false, alleging the defendants “decided to make Smartmatic the villain in their story” for their own “selfish and financial reasons.”
Giuliani and Powell “needed a platform to use to spread their story” and “found a willing partner in Fox News,” the lawsuit alleges, saying the company propagated the false conspiracy theory to cater to Trump supporters and avoid losing ground to the further-right Newsmax and OAN.
Smartmatic had previously sent letters to Fox, Newsmax and OAN in December demanding they retract their claims and warning of potential litigation, prompting Fox and Newsmax to then walk back their claims on-air and state there is no evidence linking Smartmatic’s machines to election fraud.
(Excerpt) Read more in: Forbes