{"id":2434740,"date":"2025-05-14T17:06:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T21:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/smartmatic-must-share-criminal-bribery-docs\/"},"modified":"2025-05-14T17:07:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T21:07:58","slug":"smartmatic-must-share-criminal-bribery-docs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/smartmatic-must-share-criminal-bribery-docs\/","title":{"rendered":"Smartmatic Must Share Criminal Bribery Docs"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsmartmatic-must-share-criminal-bribery-docs%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2434740&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A recent court ruling has mandated Smartmatic, a global voting software company, to provide Fox News with specific documents as part of a <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >long-standing defamation lawsuit stemming<\/a> from claims made after the 2020 presidential election. Smartmatic is seeking $2.7 billion in damages, alleging that Fox News falsely reported the company&#8217;s software was involved in election rigging, thereby damaging its reputation.<\/p>\n<p>Concurrently,Smartmatic is under inquiry by a federal grand jury for a bribery and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/australia-probes-kremlin-centered-money-laundering-scheme\/\" title=\"Australia probes Kremlin-centered money laundering scheme\">money laundering scheme<\/a> related to the 2016 Philippine elections,which reportedly involved $1 million in bribed contracts for voting services. The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted three Smartmatic executives in connection to this case, claiming they used fraudulent methods to disguise the payments and laundered money through various international accounts.<\/p>\n<p>Fox News has been denied access to documents pertaining to Smartmatic&#8217;s bribery case but was recently granted limited revelation related to the impact of these allegations on Smartmatic&#8217;s business. Fox argues that the DOJ charges, rather than their reporting, have significantly contributed to Smartmatic&#8217;s decline.<\/p>\n<p>In response, Smartmatic&#8217;s legal representatives assert that Fox&#8217;s claims of innocence are misleading, maintaining that their own evidence supports the notion that Fox&#8217;s reporting was the primary cause of damage to Smartmatic. smartmatic is involved in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dominion-sues-newsmax-oan-for-allegedly-creating-alternate-reality-with-voter-fraud-claims\/\" title=\"Dominion Sues Newsmax, OAN For Allegedly Creating \u2018Alternate Reality\u2019 With Voter Fraud Claims\">multiple defamation lawsuits<\/a>, which it outlines on its website.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Smartmatic, a global voting software company, must provide Fox News with certain documents<strong> <\/strong>as the news company defends itself in a years-long defamation lawsuit brought on the heels of the 2020 presidential election, a court ruled.<\/p>\n<p>Smartmatic, seeking $2.7 billion in damages, accuses Fox of soiling the company&rsquo;s reputation, saying Fox reported without evidence that the company&rsquo;s software had a role in rigging the 2020 election.<\/p>\n<p>While the case with Fox was ongoing, Smartmatic was being investigated&nbsp;by a federal&nbsp;grand jury on another matter.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Department of Justice criminally <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/archives\/opa\/pr\/four-men-charged-philippine-bribery-and-money-laundering-scheme\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">indicted<\/a> three company executives in a &ldquo;bribery and money laundering scheme to retain and obtain business related to the 2016 Philippine elections&rdquo; in August 2024. The DOJ said company officials paid $1 million in bribes, allegedly to get contracts to provide voting machines and election services.<\/p>\n<p>To hide the corrupt payments within Smartmatic, the DOJ said, indicted company officials &ldquo;used coded language to refer to the slush fund and caused the creation of fraudulent contracts and sham loan agreements to justify transfers. The co-conspirators then allegedly laundered funds related to the bribery scheme through bank accounts located in Asia, Europe, and the United States, including in the Southern District of Florida.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Fox wanted to see documents from Smartmatic&rsquo;s bribery case to use in its defense. A court denied that request in 2024. But this week, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Judicial Department reversed that decision, directing Smartmatic to share documents and communications showing the effect the DOJ allegations had on Smartmatic&rsquo;s business.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We are pleased with the Court&rsquo;s ruling that materials about Smartmatic executives&rsquo; indictments are &lsquo;plainly relevant&rsquo; to its lack of damages,&rdquo; Fox News said in a statement. &ldquo;The factual evidence shows that Smartmatic&rsquo;s business and reputation were badly suffering long before any claims by President Trump&rsquo;s lawyers on Fox News and that Smartmatic grossly inflated its damage claims to generate headlines and chill free speech.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Because Smartmatic seeks special damages for lost profits, the order notes the company is required to &ldquo;identify the actual economic losses that were caused by the alleged defamatory statements,&rdquo; and provide those documents. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Fox maintains there are other reasons Smartmatic&rsquo;s business declined unrelated to its reporting, such as the DOJ&rsquo;s criminal charges. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Reached for comment, a Smartmatic representative directed The Federalist to a press release characterizing the court&rsquo;s decision as &ldquo;grant[ing] Fox limited discovery to which Smartmatic had already agreed.&rdquo; In the release, Erik Connolly, an attorney for Smartmatic, claimed, &ldquo;Fox lost this discovery battle before the Court even ruled, and the discovery that Smartmatic has already produced shows that Fox&rsquo;s campaign of lies was the number one cause of Smartmatic&rsquo;s injuries. Fox demanded discovery it wasn&rsquo;t entitled to, then tried to spin its retreat as a win. &hellip; Fox trying to blame anyone other than itself for Smartmatic&rsquo;s injuries is just more lies from Fox.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Smartmatic is involved in numerous defamation lawsuits, which it tracks on its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smartmatic.com\/us\/lawsuit-updates\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lara-logan-challenges-media-to-ask-certain-questions-about-afghanistan\/\" title=\"Lara Logan Challenges Media To Ask Certain Questions About Afghanistan\">award-winning investigative journalist<\/a> with decades of media experience.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Smartmatic must share documents with Fox News in a defamation case<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":2434743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Voting.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546,33651],"tags":[20427,41706,5428],"class_list":["post-2434740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","category-the-western-journal","tag-bribery","tag-legal-documents","tag-smartmatic"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Voting.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2434740"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2434745,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434740\/revisions\/2434745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2434743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2434740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2434740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2434740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}