Voting machine maker Smartmatic sued far-right news networks One America News and Newsmax for defamation Wednesday, accusing them of spreading baseless election fraud claims involving the company’s voting systems, in the latest litigation over right-wing conspiracy theories involving the 2020 presidential election. Smartmatic is asking the court to hold a jury trial to address its defamation claims in both cases.“The first time it happened could be a mistake. The second, third, fourth and fiftieth times it happened were intentional choices, ” OANN states in the complaint. “OANN had every opportunity to do the right thing after the 2020 election for President and Vice President of the United States. It could have reported the truth. Instead, OANN chose to do the wrong thing every time. It reported a lie. ”“Smartmatic’s action against Newsmax today is a clear attempt to squelch the rights of a free press, ” Newsmax said in a statement. Smartmatic and rival company Dominion Voting Systems have filed a series of defamation lawsuits in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, after baseless conspiracy theories implicating the companies’ machines in purported election fraud took hold on the far right. Smartmatic has already filed a $2. 7 billion defamation lawsuit against far-right attorneys Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, Fox News and several of its anchors, which is pending in state court. In addition to Smartmatic’s two lawsuits, Dominion has also sued Newsmax, OANN and two of its anchors, along with Powell, Giuliani, Fox News, former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne and MyPillow and its CEO Mike Lindell. Those lawsuits all remain pending, though Dominion earned a court victory in August when a federal judge ruled the company’s cases against Powell, Giuliani and Lindell could move forward and threw out the defendants’ motions to dismiss. Though the complaints Wednesday allege Smartmatic was valued at more than $3 billion before the 2020 election, Forbes independently valued the company at an estimated $730 million in April based on its estimated 2020 sales. CEO Antonio Mugica disputed that figure, arguing the company would be valued at more than $3 billion were it not for the fraud claims, and the company claimed in its first defamation lawsuit the election allegations have caused Smartmatic to lose $500 million in potential profits over five years. Right-wing network One America News sued by voting technology firm Smartmatic – court records (Reuters)Voting Company Smartmatic Sues Fox News, Giuliani, Sidney Powell For Defamation (Forbes)This Foreign Voting Machine Company Wants To Take Over America – If It Can Get Through Fox News (Forbes)After Lawsuits Against Newsmax And OANN, Here’s Who Dominion Has Sued So Far—And Who Could Be Next (Forbes)
All data is taken from the source: http://forbes.com
Article Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/11/03/voting-company-smartmatic-sues-one-america-news-for-defamation-over-election-fraud-claims/
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