Newsmax to pay $67 million to settle Dominion lawsuit over 2020 election lies
The article reports that Newsmax has agreed to pay $67 million to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems concerning false claims related to the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Dominion filed the lawsuit in 2021 after Newsmax repeatedly broadcast false allegations promoted by former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell and Trump supporter Mike Lindell, accusing Dominion of election fraud. The settlement was revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, showing that Newsmax paid $27 million upfront, with the remainder due by January 2027.
The case followed a Delaware judge’s ruling that Newsmax aired defamatory statements likely to damage Dominion’s reputation, and a jury was set to determine if the defamation was intentional and the amount of damages owed. Dominion had previously secured a $787 million settlement from Fox News in a similar lawsuit and also won a $40 million settlement from Newsmax in a related defamation case brought by the voting technology company Smartmatic.The settlement resolves one of the last outstanding legal actions tied to election misinformation broadcast by Newsmax.
Newsmax to pay $67 million to settle Dominion lawsuit over 2020 election lies
Newsmax agreed to settle one of the last remaining lawsuits from Dominion Voting Systems over the network’s airing of false claims related to the 2020 election.
Dominion filed a lawsuit against the right-wing news network in 2021 over it repeatedly featuring former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell and Trump supporter Mike Lindell, both of whom spread false conspiracies about Dominion. Dominion, a Colorado-based voting hardware and software company, became the target of many of President Donald Trump’s supporters in the wake of the 2020 election.
The settlement was announced in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. It said the network paid $27 million of the settlement on that day and the rest will be paid by January 2027. The filing did not indicate how Newsmax and Dominion settled on the monetary amount.
Earlier this year, a judge in Delaware ruled that Newsmax aired slanderous statements about the company by falsely accusing it of rigging the 2020 election. The judge noted that it would be left to a jury to decide if the defamatory comments were intentional, and how much Newsmax should pay in damages.
In his April opinion, Judge Eric M. Davis said Dominion presented “clear and convincing evidence “that Newsmax broadcast segments with false information that “would likely cause reasonable viewers to think significantly less favorably about Dominion than if the viewers knew the truth.”
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A trial was scheduled to begin in October.
Dominion received a $787 million settlement from Fox News in 2023 over its airing of false claims. Fox News settled the case on the eve of the trial.
Newsmax additionally settled another 2020 election-related defamation lawsuit brought by voting technology company, Smartmatic, for $40 million on the eve of the jury trial last year.
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