A top lawyer for Smartmatic, the voting technology company whose defamation lawsuit against Fox News is still pending, said Thursday that he won’t accept any settlement smaller than the $787 million Fox agreed to pay Dominion, and that his client needs a “full retraction” from the right-wing network disavowing the lies it spread about the 2020 presidential election.
“They need to get an apology. They need to get a full retraction,” Smartmatic lawyer Erik Connolly told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead.”
That is something Dominion Voting Systems wasn’t able to extract from Fox as part of its historic $787 million settlement, which was clinched Tuesday, as the trial was on the brink of opening statements. (But in a press release, Fox publicly “acknowledged” that the judge in that case had concluded that all 20 on-air statements that Dominion sued over were false.)
Connolly said Smartmatic is “looking to take this case through trial” and wants “the vindication of a jury verdict in their favor.” But if there were to be an out-of-court settlement, the deal would need to include the retraction plus a payout larger than the massive sum that Dominion got.
“That set down a marker and it’s a marker that we think we should be exceeding,” Connolly said. “The scope of the damage done to Smartmatic is a global scale, because we operate globally… $787 million is a good start. But it’s not the right finishing point.”
He blasted Fox for perpetrating the myth that Smartmatic “somehow masterminded an ability to rig a national election when we were only in one county” in 2020 — Los Angeles County — adding, that level of “recklessness is something you don’t normally see.”
Fox denies wrongdoing and is fighting the lawsuit, which is unfolding in New York state courts. Smartmatic wants $2.7 billion from Fox and other Trump allies that it named in the lawsuit.
“We will be ready to defend this case surrounding extremely newsworthy events when it goes to trial, likely in 2025,” a Fox spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday. “As a report prepared by our financial expert shows, Smartmatic’s damages claims are implausible, disconnected from reality, and on its face intended to chill First Amendment freedoms.”
The parties will meet face-to-face next week for a hearing in Manhattan, about potential evidentiary issues in the case, with Smartmatic seeking more internal materials from Fox.
PausedForVolatility on April 21st, 2023 at 14:49 UTC »
The commentary on this here is missing the point.
Dominion took the payout because it would have been insane to walk away from that kind of money. Let’s say they went to court. Are they likely to get more than $800m in judgement? Probably. But then Fox appeals and delays and drags their feet. With a billion dollar incentive, expect them to find every ridiculous reason to delay. And then once the ruling is upheld, Fox then has to actually pay. Which they might not do. If they don’t pay on their settlement, this reverts back to court and the costs to Fox increase significantly when Dominion can then point at clear and obvious damages resulting from breach of settlement.
However, Fox still admitted fault in their settlement here. They’re accused of doing the same thing with Smartmatic. Meaning Smartmatic can point at the settlement and say things like, “if the respondent claims it did no wrong, why did it spend nearly a billion dollars to make Dominion go away after discovery and all the other steps?” Which, when they just need to prove they’re right based on the “preponderance of evidence,” is one hell of a silver bullet.
Dominion helped Smartmatic’s case, took a big chunk out of Fox’s war chest, set a precedent that an now be used by other aggrieved parties, and showed the weakness of Fox’s legal strategies: the moment they have to risk putting guys like Tucker on the stand, they’re probably going to fold. And while I’d have loved to see that cross, this is still a massive win.
Fox has spent decades fucking around with their authoritarian bullshit. And they skated because they were on the line. But now, with their claims so demonstrably false and harmful, they’re finally finding out. Smartmatic knows this and will probably settle for ten figures. And I seriously doubt they’re the only ones.
Also, heads have rolled at Fox for settlements costing low eight figures. This saga isn’t over.
Fapper_McFapper on April 21st, 2023 at 13:30 UTC »
Smartmatic wants more than Dominion’s $787 million payout, plus a retraction from Fox for its 2020 election lies, lawyer says and a retraction for its 2020 lies is negotiable.
e-r_bridge on April 21st, 2023 at 13:05 UTC »
I sure hope they can get a retraction on air, Fox's own air. And, run at regular intervals.
*and then I woke up