Fox News warned it 'picked the wrong company' as Smartmatic refuses settlement

The overwhelming majority of the lawsuit against Fox News by Smartmatic has been filed under seal, leaving little information available for the public to follow. That changed with a filing this week, however.

Fox News filed a motion for summary judgment, which is a request for the court to resolve a lawsuit without a trial. In its response, Smartmatic emphatically said no.

In the wake of President Donald Trump's 2020 election loss, Fox hosts and guests similarly attacked Dominion Voting Systems, leading to a lawsuit from the company. After years of negotiations, both parties agreed to settle in 2023 for $787.5 million and an acknowledgment "the Court's rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false."

Smartmatic indicated at the time that it would not be following suit.

The court filing submitted on Wednesday alleges "widespread damage" and "unprecedented scale of defamation," calling the comments about the company "deliberate deception" and "Targeted Character Assassination."

However, it was in the final section that Smartmatic made it clear it was in it for the long haul.

"But, to be fair, Fox got one thing right in their motion. Smartmatic is not Dominion. Smartmatic is an order of magnitude bigger in almost every metric, starting with historical profits. Smartmatic pioneered voting systems with verified paper trails, conducted the first fully automated nationwide elections, and provided Europe’s first fully automated, verifiable voting experience. Smartmatic provided the world’s largest and longest operating online voting system, delivered the first blockchain-powered online vote, and supplied voting machines for the largest election contract in U.S. history," the documents says.

The filing cites endorsements from former presidents and touts its transparency and "perfect record. Smartmatic was in 2020 the largest and most successful voting company in the world."

"Fox picked the wrong company to cast as its villain," the filing says.

"Prior to the Campaign, Smartmatic was a multi-billion-dollar enterprise with global reach, a track record of success in the world’s most challenging election environments, and a foolproof defense to any claim of rigging the 2020 election (it operated only in LA County)," it continues. "In 2020, Fox may not have appreciated that it was attacking a company that, in fact, embodied the American dream—growing from obscurity to winner of the largest election contracts in the world. Fox now knows. That is why its motion desperately attempts to once again vilify Smartmatic—deploying the classic abuser’s tactic of blaming the victim. But Fox’s claims about Smartmatic remain lies; and, ultimately, the jury will determine the price Fox must pay for its deliberate destruction of an innocent company."

Smartmatic issued a press release with the filing saying internal communications at Fox "reveal that they knew there was no credible evidence of Smartmatic participating in election fraud, yet they deliberately chose to promote false narratives against the company anyway. These communications show contempt against their viewers, the country and the President."

Among the arguments Fox has presented is that they have a First Amendment right to the free press.

“This is not a case about freedom of the press,” said external legal counsel Erik Connolly, said for Smartmatic. “This is about a media empire choosing to lie for ratings and profit, no matter the consequences and no matter the damage done.”

Fox's first motion, filed in May, attacked the company further, saying that it has "ongoing reputational problems," which gives credence to its claims on air about the company, ABC News reported.

"In the wake of the hotly contested 2020 Presidential Election, Fox News hosts fairly and accurately reported on remarkable and newsworthy allegations that the President and his lawyers were making about election integrity during the short interval between Election Day and the date the results were certified, while court challenges were playing out around the country," the filing from the network said.

Fox said that Smartmatic sees the networks as a "litigation lottery ticket in Fox News's coverage of the 2020 election."

The lawsuit was first filed in 2021 and included other defendants.

See the court filing below.