# Smartmatic v Fox News Lawsuit The $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit filed by [[Smartmatic]] against [[Fox News]], [[Fox Corporation]], and several individual defendants is the largest pending media defamation case in American history and the direct sequel to the [[Fox - Dominion Settlement]]. Filed on February 4, 2021, in New York State Supreme Court, the case alleges that Fox and its hosts orchestrated a sustained [[Disinformation]] campaign falsely accusing Smartmatic of rigging the [[2020 Presidential Election]] — and that this campaign was driven by the same commercial incentives exposed in the Dominion discovery. Where the [[Dominion Voting Systems]] case resulted in a $787.5 million settlement before trial, the Smartmatic case has been moving toward a trial that could produce the first contested jury verdict against [[Fox News]] for its post-2020 election coverage. If the case reaches trial and Smartmatic prevails, the damages could dwarf the Dominion settlement. If Fox settles again, the cumulative cost of its election [[Disinformation]] could exceed $3 billion. ## What Makes This Case Different from Dominion The Smartmatic case is structurally broader and potentially more damaging than the Dominion suit in several dimensions: **Larger damages claim.** Smartmatic seeks $2.7 billion — more than triple the $787.5 million Fox paid [[Dominion Voting Systems]]. The higher claim reflects Smartmatic's argument that Fox's false statements destroyed its business globally, not just in the United States. Smartmatic operated election technology in multiple countries, and the reputational damage from Fox's broadcasts extended to its international contracts and relationships. **Broader defendant list.** While the Dominion case targeted Fox Corporation and Fox News as entities, the Smartmatic case names individual defendants: [[Maria Bartiromo]], [[Jeanine Pirro]], and [[Lou Dobbs]] as hosts who directly broadcast the false claims, plus [[Rudy Giuliani]] and [[Sidney Powell]] as guests who made the defamatory statements on Fox's air. This structure allows Smartmatic to pursue individual liability in addition to corporate liability — and to force individual hosts to testify at trial about their personal knowledge and motives. **The Murdoch chain of command.** [[Rupert Murdoch]]'s deposition in the Dominion case — in which he acknowledged that Fox hosts had "endorsed" election fraud claims and that he could have intervened — is now part of the evidentiary landscape for the Smartmatic case. The Dominion discovery effectively pre-established the knowledge element of the defamation claim: Fox's own internal communications prove its executives and hosts knew the election fraud narrative was false while broadcasting it. The Smartmatic plaintiffs can build on this foundation rather than developing it from scratch. **No settlement leverage from trial avoidance.** Fox settled the Dominion case on the eve of trial to avoid a public proceeding in which its hosts would testify under oath and its internal communications would be read aloud. That leverage is diminished in the Smartmatic case because the Dominion discovery is already public. [[Lachlan Murdoch]] and Fox's legal team face a different calculus: the embarrassing revelations are already out; the question is whether a jury trial produces an even larger financial hit than a pre-trial settlement. ## Timeline | Date | Event | |---|---| | **November–December 2020** | Fox broadcasts featuring [[Maria Bartiromo]], [[Lou Dobbs]], and [[Jeanine Pirro]] repeatedly air claims that Smartmatic rigged the election, that its software was linked to [[Hugo Chavez]] and Venezuelan election manipulation, and that it had manipulated vote counts in key states | | **December 2020** | Smartmatic sends a retraction demand letter to Fox. Fox airs a pre-recorded segment with an election technology expert debunking the claims — but the debunking segment runs on the shows of Dobbs, Bartiromo, and Pirro without host endorsement or correction | | **February 4, 2021** | Smartmatic files $2.7B defamation suit in New York State Supreme Court | | **February 2021** | Fox cancels Lou Dobbs Tonight; Dobbs is effectively removed from the network | | **2021–2023** | Fox moves to dismiss; case survives multiple motions to dismiss | | **April 2023** | Fox settles the parallel [[Fox - Dominion Settlement]] for $787.5M, strengthening Smartmatic's negotiating position | | **2023–2024** | Extended discovery phase; Smartmatic obtains additional internal Fox communications beyond those produced in Dominion case | | **January 2024** | New York appellate court narrows some claims but allows the core defamation claims to proceed | | **2025** | Pretrial proceedings continue; trial date pushed to 2026–2027 window | | **2026** | Case remains in active pretrial phase; trial expected 2026–2027 | ## Key Allegations The complaint alleges that Fox hosts broadcast at least thirteen specific false statements about Smartmatic on air between November and December 2020, including claims that Smartmatic's software was designed to rig elections, that it had been developed for Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, that it had been used to manipulate the 2020 U.S. election, and that it was part of a global conspiracy involving multiple countries. Smartmatic was in fact used in only one county in the 2020 election — Los Angeles County — and had no connection to any of the contested states. The suit alleges that Fox broadcast these claims despite having access to accurate information about Smartmatic's limited role, that [[Fox News]] continued amplifying the false narrative even after Smartmatic's retraction demand, and that the network's motive was identical to the one exposed in the Dominion discovery: retaining audience share against competitors like [[Newsmax]] and [[OAN]] who were pushing the [[Stop the Steal]] narrative more aggressively. The [[Propaganda Feedback Loop]] that the RWKB tracks was operating at full speed. ## Pretrial Rulings The New York courts have issued several significant pretrial rulings. Motions to dismiss by Fox and the individual defendants were largely denied, with the court finding that Smartmatic had adequately alleged actual malice — that Fox broadcast the false statements knowing they were false or with reckless disregard for their truth. The discovery produced in the Dominion case was central to this finding: when a media organization's own internal communications prove its hosts and executives knew the election fraud claims were false, the actual malice standard — established by the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] in the landmark case establishing the public-figure [[First Amendment]] defense — is substantially easier to meet. An appellate ruling in 2024 narrowed some of the claims, removing certain statements from the case and limiting the scope of some damages theories, but left the core defamation claims intact. The individual defendant claims against [[Rudy Giuliani]] and [[Sidney Powell]] were also preserved, though both face separate legal and financial difficulties (Giuliani was disbarred; Powell pleaded guilty in the [[Georgia RICO Case]]). ## Why It Matters for the RWKB The Smartmatic case is the unfinished half of the Fox [[Disinformation]] accountability story. The [[Fox - Dominion Settlement]] answered the question of whether Fox would face financial consequences for broadcasting election lies — but it left open whether Fox would face a trial, whether individual hosts would be held personally liable, and whether the cumulative cost would be large enough to alter Fox's editorial incentives. The case tests the durability of the [[Fox News]] business model under sustained legal pressure. Fox paid $787.5 million to Dominion and changed nothing about its operations — no on-air correction, no fired executives, no editorial reforms. If Fox faces an additional $2.7 billion liability (or a settlement in the hundreds of millions), the economic calculus shifts. At some point the cost of broadcasting [[Disinformation]] exceeds the revenue it generates, and the entity — or its insurer, or its parent company, or [[Rupert Murdoch]]'s estate through the [[Murdoch Trust Settlement]] — must reckon with whether the business model is sustainable. The individual defendant dimension connects to the RWKB's tracking of [[Media Ecosystem]] accountability. If [[Maria Bartiromo]] or [[Jeanine Pirro]] face personal financial liability for statements made on air, it creates incentives that don't exist when only the corporate entity pays. The [[Tucker Carlson]] departure from Fox in 2023 was widely attributed to the legal exposure created by the Dominion case; if individual liability becomes real in the Smartmatic case, it changes the risk calculation for every on-air personality in the right-wing media ecosystem. The case also connects to the [[Election Denialism]] tracking. Fox's 2020 election coverage was load-bearing infrastructure for the [[Stop the Steal]] movement and, ultimately, the [[January 6 Capitol Attack]]. The Smartmatic case extends the legal accountability timeline beyond the Dominion settlement and keeps the factual record of Fox's knowing participation in election [[Misinformation]] in active litigation through the 2026 midterm cycle. ## Open Questions Will the case reach trial, or will Fox settle a second time? If Fox settles, what does the cumulative cost ($787.5M + Smartmatic settlement) do to Fox's editorial risk calculus and to [[Fox Corporation]]'s valuation? If the case goes to trial, do the individual defendant claims against [[Maria Bartiromo]] and [[Jeanine Pirro]] survive, and does individual liability create a new precedent for media host accountability? Does the [[Lachlan Murdoch]] leadership era show any meaningful difference from the [[Rupert Murdoch]] era in managing legal exposure from [[Disinformation]]? How does the Smartmatic case interact with the broader [[Conservative Court Capture Timeline]] — could a future judicial environment be less hospitable to defamation claims against media companies? ## Connections - Fox corporate: [[Fox News]], [[Fox Corporation]], [[Rupert Murdoch]], [[Lachlan Murdoch]], [[Murdoch Trust Settlement]] - Individual defendants: [[Maria Bartiromo]], [[Jeanine Pirro]], [[Lou Dobbs]], [[Rudy Giuliani]], [[Sidney Powell]] - Related Fox hosts: [[Tucker Carlson]], [[Sean Hannity]], [[Laura Ingraham]] - The parallel case: [[Fox - Dominion Settlement]], [[Dominion Voting Systems]] - Election infrastructure: [[2020 Presidential Election]], [[Stop the Steal]], [[Stop the Steal Timeline]], [[Election Denialism]], [[Election Conspiracy Theories]], [[The Big Lie]] - January 6 thread: [[January 6 Capitol Attack]] - Disinformation mechanics: [[Disinformation]], [[Misinformation]], [[Propaganda]], [[Propaganda Feedback Loop]], [[Media Ecosystem]], [[Information Warfare]] - Legal framework: [[First Amendment]], [[Free Speech]], [[SLAPP Lawsuits]] - Competitor pressure: [[Newsmax]], [[OAN]], [[Mike Lindell]] - Structural: [[Democracy]], [[Authoritarianism]], [[Rule of Law]], [[Oversight and Accountability Hub]], [[Regulatory Capture]] ## See Also - [[Fox - Dominion Settlement]] - [[Fox News]] - [[Smartmatic]] - [[Dominion Voting Systems]] - [[Rupert Murdoch]] - [[2020 Presidential Election]] - [[Stop the Steal]] - [[Election Denialism]]