Smartmatic Sues Fox News For $2.7 Bln Over Election Disinformation Campaign

(RTTNews) - Election technology and software company Smartmatic USA Corp. has filed a lawsuit against Fox News, owned by Fox Corp., and its certain hosts and two attorneys close to former President Donald Trump over alleged disinformation campaign after the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

In the defamation suit filed in a New York court, the company seeks $2.7 billion in damages from Fox News, its commentators including Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartiromo, as well as attorneys Sidney Powell and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Following the election, Trump had claimed that the election was rigged against him, and was stolen.

In the lawsuit, the Florida-based Smartmatic accused the parties of executing a coordinated disinformation campaign to convince public of Trump's election fraud claims, and of making defamatory on-air comments about the company's products.

The lawsuit also detailed a series of statements made on Fox News by the two lawyers as well as Fox News anchors regarding Smartmatic.

The company said in the filing, "Even customers that are confident that Smartmatic was not involved in voter fraud and otherwise do not believe the Defendants' disinformation campaign have expressed that, due to the false statements made and spread by the Defendants, it is too toxic for them to do business with Smartmatic."

Antonio Mugica, Smartmatic's founder and chief executive Officer, said in the filing that the disinformation campaign would cause them over $500 million in lost profits under base contracts for Smartmatic election technology business line alone over a five year period till 2025. The company is expected to lose another $190 million in add-on services.

Smartmatic said its election technology business enterprise value has suffered, with its election-related brand, reputation, and enterprise value losing over $2.4 billion as a result of the disinformation campaign.

In response to the lawsuit, Fox News reportedly said it is committed to providing the full context of every story with in-depth reporting and clear opinion, and that it was proud of its 2020 election coverage and would vigorously defend itself in court.