Conservative news network Newsmax agreed to pay a voting machine company $40 million to settle a defamation lawsuit over falsehoods the network spread about the 2020 presidential election that President Donald Trump lost.
Smartmatic, the voting machine company, sued Newsmax, along with Fox News and One America News, over the networks’ false reporting that Smartmatic switched votes to make them in favor of President Joe Biden.
While a settlement was reached last year between Newsmax and Smartmatic, the $40 million amount paid was made public in a filing on March 7, as first reported by The Independent this week.
Smartmatic also reached a settlement with One America News last year, though the amount has not been disclosed. Smartmatic’s lawsuit against Fox News remains ongoing. Fox News previously settled with Dominion ― a different voting machine company ― for $787 million in 2023.
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While Newsmax’s lawsuit with Smartmatic has been settled, the network is facing another lawsuit after it dismissed accurate reports that a mass shooter was a white supremacist, and shared an image of a man they incorrectly identified as the killer.
“Lots of jumping to conclusions by the media, fueled by the Biden group’s constant push of this theory that white supremacy is the biggest danger in the country,” Chris Knowles, the vice president of programming at Newsmax, said in an email at the time. You can read the full story here.