Spreading false claims about voting machines has cost Newsmax $40 million. The company settled a defamation lawsuit from voting technology company Smartmatic days before a trial was due to begin last year, but the size of the settlement wasn't publicly known before a Newsmax regulatory filing this month, NBC News reports. The filing states that Newsmax has agreed to pay Smartmatic $40 million, of which $20 million has already been paid. It states that the company believes the settlement will "eliminate future legal expenses the Company would have expected to bear related to this suit, which could have included costly appellate legal actions and other matters."
Newsmax anchors and guests amplified then-President Trump's election fraud claims after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden, Deadline reports. According to the defamation lawsuit Smartmatic filed in 2021, dozens of Newsmax reports claimed that the company was a part of a "criminal conspiracy" and "its technology and software were used to switch votes from former President Trump to now President Biden." After the settlement, Newsmax acknowledged that the court had found allegations that election results "were somehow altered or manipulated by Smartmatic are factually false/untrue."
Smartmatic settled a similar lawsuit against One America News last year for terms that have not been disclosed, NBC reports. The company is now focusing on a lawsuit against Fox News. "We look forward to presenting our evidence to a jury and finally having the opportunity to hold Fox accountable for its harmful actions," J. Erik Connolly, a lawyer for Smartmatic, said Thursday. (In 2023, Fox agreed to pay Dominion Voting Machines $787.5 million to settle a defamation case.)
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