Company Smartmatic files $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News over election conspiracy theories

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Election-technology company Smartmatic files $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News over election conspiracy theories

By Jacob Shamsian



The election-technology company Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News on Thursday, alleging that the right-wing media organization waged a disinformation campaign about the 2020 election that irreparably harmed the company and "damaged democracy worldwide."

"In November and December 2020, Fox News broadcast multiple reports stating and implying that Smartmatic had fixed and rigged the 2020 election," the company said in a press release. "They repeated the false claims and accusations on air and in articles and social media postings that were together seen by millions in the US and even more around the world."

The 285-page lawsuit, filed in New York state, also named the Fox News hosts Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, and Jeanine Pirro as defendants. Those hosts had invited Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani — also named as defendants — on their shows.

Following President Donald Trump's loss in November, Powell and Giuliani became the chief promoters of the baseless conspiracy theory that Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems, a rival election-technology company, rigged the 2020 presidential election.

Powell and Giuliani alleged that a convoluted series of secret deals and technological innovations had allowed the companies to secretly switch votes from Trump to Joe Biden. Powell used the theory as a basis for a series of ultimately failed lawsuits in federal court seeking to overturn the election result.



Smartmatic said the hosts had offered Powell and Giuliani a platform and endorsed their falsehoods.

"These defendants are primary sources of much of the false information," the company said. "Their unfounded accusations were repeated by other media outlets, journalists, bloggers and influencers the world over."

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