Voting company Smartmatic USA sues Fox News, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell over election fraud claims

• The $3.55 billion lawsuit is one of the largest libel suits ever undertaken
• Smartmatic USA claims Fox News aired 13 reports falsely claiming it stole the 2020 vote in partnership with the Venezuelan Government
• The company’s voting machines were only used in Los Angeles County, a Democratic stronghold

A voting technology company is suing Fox News and three of its hosts, as well as two former lawyers for former president Donald Trump, claiming the defendants conspired to spread false claims that the company helped “steal” the 2020 US presidential election.

A voting technology company is suing Fox News and three of its hosts, as well as two former lawyers for former president Donald Trump, claiming the defendants conspired to spread false claims that the company helped “steal” the 2020 US presidential election.

Unlike Dominion, whose technology was used in 24 states, Smartmatic’s participation in the 2020 election was restricted to Los Angeles County, which votes heavily Democratic.

Despite the company’s limited role in the election, US cable news network Fox News aired at least 13 reports falsely stating or implying the company had stolen the 2020 vote in partnership with Venezuela’s socialist Government, according to the complaint.

This alleged “disinformation campaign” continued even after then-attorney-general William Barr said the Department of Justice could find no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

The 285-page lawsuit alleges a December 10 segment by Fox News host Lou Dobbs accused Smartmatic and its CEO, Antonio Mugica, of working to flip votes through a non-existent backdoor in its voting software to carry out a “massive cyber Pearl Harbor”.

“Defendants’ story was a lie,” the lawsuit stated. “But, it was a story that sold.”

The complaint also alleges that Fox News hosts Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro also directly benefitted from their involvement in the conspiracy.

The lawsuit alleges that Fox News went along with the “well-orchestrated dance” due to pressure from newcomer outlets such as Newsmax and One America News, which were stealing away conservative, pro-Trump viewers.

Fox News Media, in a statement on behalf of the network and its hosts, rejected the accusations.

It said it was proud of its election coverage and would defend itself against the “meritless” lawsuit in court.

Fox News “is committed to providing the full context of every story with in-depth reporting and clear opinion,” the company said in a written statement.

Giuliani and Powell did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Smartmatic claims death threats poured in

For Smartmatic, the effects of the negative publicity were swift and devastating, the complaint alleges.

Death threats, including against an executive’s 14-year-old son, poured in as internet searches for the company surged, Smartmatic claims.

With several client contracts in jeopardy, the company estimates that it will lose as much as $US690 million in profits over the next five years.

It also expects it will have to boost spending by $US4.7 million to fend off what it called a “meteoric rise” in cyberattacks.

“For us, this is an existential crisis,” Mr Mugica said in an interview.

He said the false statements against Smartmatic had led one foreign bank to close its accounts and deterred Taiwan, a prospective client, from adopting e-voting technology.

Like many conspiracy theories, the alleged campaign against Smartmatic was built on a grain of truth.

Mr Mugica is Venezuelan and Smartmatic’s initial success is partly attributable to major contracts from Hugo Chavez’s Government, an early devotee of electronic voting.

No evidence has emerged that the company rigged votes in favour of the anti-American firebrand, and for a while the US not-for-profit Carter Center along with other observers held out Venezuela as a model of electronic voting.

Meanwhile, the company has expanded globally.

‘Invented story to capitalise on Trump’s popularity’

Smartmatic is represented by J Erik Connolly, who previously won what’s believed to be the largest settlement in American media defamation, at least $US177 million ($233 million), for a report on US TV network ABC News describing a company’s beef product as “pink slime”.

“Very rarely do you see news organisation go day after day after day the same targets,” Mr Connolly said in an interview.

“We couldn’t possibly have rigged this election because we just weren’t even in the contested states to do the rigging.”

Fox News, after receiving a demand for retraction from Smartmatic’s lawyers in December, aired what it called a “fact-checking segment” with an election technology exper

In the segment, the expert said there was no evidence of tampering — something the defendants knew from the start and reported elsewhere on the network, the complaint alleges.

Far from making the company whole, Mr Mugica said he saw the segment — in which an unidentified voice asks questions referenced in the

retraction letter — as an admission of guilt.

“They knew these truths just as they knew the Earth is round and two plus two equals four,” according to the lawsuit.

“But they also saw an opportunity to capitalise on president Trump’s popularity by inventing a story.”