Judge’s Ruling Sets Stage For Trial In Smartmatic’s Defamation Case Against Newsmax Over 2020 Election Rigging Claims

deadline.com:

A Delaware judge said that a jury will have to decide whether Newsmax engaged in actual malice against Smartmatic as the conservative news outlet amplified claims made by allies of Donald Trump that the voting machine company helped rig the 2020 presidential election.

The ruling from Judge Eric M. Davis is just the latest in a series of lawsuits filed by Smartmatic and another election systems company, Dominion Voting Systems, over claims made by Newsmax, One America News Network and Fox News guests and personalities in the aftermath of the election.

Smartmatic sued Newsmax in November, 2021, claiming that as the network sought a larger audience, it published dozens of reports indicating that Smartmatic was in a “criminal conspiracy” to rig the results of the election, “and that its technology and software were used to switch votes from former President Trump to now President Biden.” In his ruling, Davis wrote that “there remains a dispute as to whether Newsmax recklessly disregarded the truth.

On one hand, Newsmax argues it was simply reporting matter on a public concern and it had no duty to conduct its own investigation.