Pro-Trump news platform fined $67m over election defamation suit

Newsmax is to pay $67 million to a voting technology firm over false claims the pro-Trump cable television channel made about the 2020 US presidential election.

The settlement of the defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Systems was announced in a filing by Newsmax on Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Under the settlement agreement, Newsmax said it had paid Dominion $27 million on Friday and would pay $20 million in 2026 and the final $20 million in 2027.

Fox News settled a similar defamation lawsuit with Dominion in 2023 for $787.5 million, and the Rupert Murdoch-owned television network has also been sued by another voting technology company, Smartmatic.

Dominion filed a defamation suit against Newsmax in 2021 over false claims that its voting technology was used to rig the 2020 election, in which Democrat Joe Biden defeated Republican Donald Trump.

Dominion sought $1.6 billion in damages over baseless allegations aired on Newsmax that the company’s software had altered vote counts.

Newsmax settled a defamation suit with Smartmatic for $40 million last year, averting a trial.

In a statement, Newsmax said it had agreed to settle with Dominion because it did not believe it could receive a fair trial from the Delaware judge presiding over the case.

“The pattern of judicial rulings that consistently denied Newsmax due process left the Company to believe it would not receive a fair trial,” Newsmax said. “Faced with these rulings and other constraints, Newsmax chose to settle.

“Newsmax has always maintained that its reporting was not defamatory and that its coverage was consistent with accepted journalistic standards,” the company said.

“We stand by our coverage as fair, balanced, and conducted within professional standards of journalism,” it added.

Dominion, in its complaint against Newsmax, had accused the conservative TV channel of “feeding its audience a torrent of lies that supported the false narrative that President Trump won the election.”

“Newsmax helped create and cultivate an alternate reality where up is down, pigs have wings, and Dominion engaged in a colossal fraud to steal the presidency from Donald Trump by rigging the vote,” Dominion said.

Source: Punch