Filing: Smartmatic Execs Deleted Records Related To Fox Lawsuit
A recent legal filing by Fox news claims that senior officials at Smartmatic, the voting software company, engaged in the deletion and alteration of crucial evidence related to a defamation lawsuit against Fox. this memorandum,submitted to the New York Supreme Court,alleges that Smartmatic’s CEO,Antonio mugica,directed the deletion of WhatsApp messages that discussed meaningful damages related to the lawsuit,which seeks $2.7 billion from Fox for allegedly baseless claims about Smartmatic’s role in the 2020 election. Fox’s complaint further asserts that nearly two dozen Smartmatic employees deleted relevant messages in a bid to obstruct Fox’s defense.
The filing indicates that such actions were taken while Smartmatic’s executives were under examination for bribery and corruption. Fox News is asking the court to recognize this destruction of evidence and impose consequences that could significantly impact Smartmatic’s damage claims. In response, Smartmatic’s attorney refuted Fox’s accusations, suggesting they were merely attempts to distract from Fox’s own issues with evidence preservation. The case reflects ongoing tensions between the two entities following contentious reporting around the 2020 election.
Senior officials at the voting software company Smartmatic ordered the deletion and doctoring of evidence relevant to its ongoing defamation case against Fox News, a court filing made on Wednesday alleges.
In its new memorandum filed with the New York Supreme Court, Fox News claimed that multiple Smartmatic officials — including its CEO — are complicit in the spoliation of records pertaining to the ongoing legal saga between the two companies.
As The Federalist’s Beth Brelje previously reported, “Smartmatic seeks $2.7 billion from Fox in a years-long defamation case in which it accuses Fox of reporting without evidence that the company’s software had a role in rigging the 2020 election. This, the company has said in court fillings, caused Smartmatic to lose business.”
Specifically, Fox alleges in its new complaint, “On the eve of filing this lawsuit, and while the U.S. Department of Justice was investigating Smartmatic and its executives for bribery and corruption, Smartmatic’s CEO Antonio Mugica, in writing, ordered Smartmatic’s President Roger Piñate Jr. — who has since been federally indicted for those crimes — to delete WhatsApp mobile messages discussing critical damages issues surrounding the outlandish $2.7 billion the company planned to seek from Fox.”
The media company further contended that, several days prior to those alleged actions, “a top Smartmatic executive, again in writing, directed his subordinates to doctor key customer records to manufacture support for the massive damages case Smartmatic had invented.”
“[W]hile they should have been retaining documents, key Smartmatic employees deleted their mobile messages, depriving Fox of yet more evidence undermining Smartmatic’s unsupported damages claim,” the complaint reads.
The legal filing includes allegations that almost “two dozen Smartmatic executives and sales personnel deleted data relevant to Smartmatic’s multi-billion-dollar damages claims either shortly before or while this case was pending.” “For many witnesses,” Fox argued, “the spoliation is pervasive and resulted in the apparent deletion of all, or nearly all, of their mobile data.”
“The destroyed text messages have left serious gaps in the record from individuals who were directly responsible for developing Smartmatic’s farfetched damages story,” the filing reads. “Smartmatic, its CEO, and the high-ranking employees at issue were plainly hoping to leave Fox with nothing to rebut the self-interested testimony of the Smartmatic witnesses who provide the company’s sole evidence of damages. This destruction of evidence should not be rewarded.”
The latest allegations come nearly a week after Fox filed a separate court document contending that, contrary to the voting software company’s claims, Smartmatic was enduring financial struggles prior to the 2020 election. As noted by Brelje, “The filing also claimed that Smartmatic’s equipment was not certified, the company didn’t follow bidding requirements, and its services were not competitively priced.”
[Filing: Smartmatic Hid Meeting With Dem Megadonor Who Financed Its Suit Against 2020 Election Reporting]
As part of its Wednesday filing, Fox asked the court to issue an order “finding intentional spoliation by Smartmatic, and entering all relief that the Court deems appropriate.” The media company requested that such a directive “includ[e] but not [be] limited to adverse inferences that the spoliated evidence undermined Smartmatic’s damages claims, striking Smartmatic’s lost-profits claims for opportunities arising after 2022, and limiting Smartmatic’s general-damages claims to nominal damages.”
When pressed for comment, a Fox News representative referred The Federalist to the legal filings the media company made on Wednesday.
In a statement to The Federalist responding to Fox’s latest filing, Erik Connolly, an attorney representing Smartmatic in the case, said, “Fox continues to smear Smartmatic to distract from the truth: Fox lied following the 2020 election and has repeatedly lied to shield itself from accountability in this case.”
“Fox’s baseless attacks are nothing more than retaliation, a deliberate effort to avoid addressing its own destruction of evidence,” Connolly said. “Smartmatic has met all of its legal obligations in this case. Unlike Fox, Smartmatic has preserved and produced evidence in accordance with New York law.”
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