{"id":156394,"date":"2025-08-18T18:38:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T18:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/156394\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T18:38:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T18:38:12","slug":"newsmax-agrees-to-pay-67m-in-defamation-case-over-2020-election-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/156394\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsmax agrees to pay $67M in defamation case over 2020 election claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

DENVER (AP) \u2014 The conservative network Newsmax will pay $67 million to settle a lawsuit accusing it of defaming a voting equipment company by spreading lies about President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> 2020 election loss, according to documents filed Monday.<\/p>\n

The settlement comes after Fox News Channel paid $787.5 million<\/a> to settle a similar lawsuit in 2023 and Newsmax paid what court papers describe as $40 million to settle a libel lawsuit<\/a> from a different voting machine manufacturer, Smartmatic, which also was a target<\/a> of pro-Trump conspiracy theories on the network.<\/p>\n

Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis had ruled earlier that Newsmax did indeed defame Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems by airing false information about the company and its equipment. But Davis left it to a jury to eventually decide whether that was done with malice, and, if so, how much Dominion deserved from Newsmax in damages. Newsmax and Dominion reached the settlement before the trial could take place.<\/p>\n

The settlement was disclosed by Newsmax in a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It said the deal was reached Friday. <\/p>\n

\u201cNewsmax believed it was critically important for the American people to hear both sides of the election disputes that arose in 2020,\u201d the company said in a statement. \u201cWe stand by our coverage as fair, balanced, and conducted within professional standards of journalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Dominion said the company was pleased to have settled the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The disclosure of the settlement came as Trump, who lost his 2020 reelection bid<\/a> to Democrat Joe Biden, vowed in a social media post Monday to eliminate mail-in ballots and voting machines such as those supplied by Dominion and other companies. It was unclear how the Republican president could achieve that.<\/p>\n

The same judge also handled the Dominion-Fox News case and made a similar ruling that the network repeated numerous lies<\/a> by Trump\u2019s allies about his 2020 loss despite internal communications<\/a> showing Fox officials knew the claims were bogus<\/a>. At the time, Davis found it was \u201cCRYSTAL clear\u201d that none of the allegations was true.<\/p>\n

Internal correspondence from Newsmax officials likewise shows they knew the claims were baseless.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow long are we going to play along with election fraud?\u201d Newsmax host Bob Sellers said two days after the 2020 election was called for Biden<\/a>, according to internal documents revealed as part of the case. <\/p>\n

Newsmax took pride that it was not calling the election for Biden and, the internal documents show, saw a business opportunity in catering to viewers who believed Trump won. Private communications that surfaced as part of Dominion\u2019s earlier defamation case against Fox News also revealed<\/a> how the network\u2019s business interests intersected with decisions it made related to coverage of Trump\u2019s 2020 election claims<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At Newsmax, employees repeatedly warned against false allegations from pro-Trump guests such as attorney Sidney Powell<\/a>, according to documents in the lawsuit. In one text, even Newsmax owner Chris Ruddy, a Trump ally, said he found it \u201cscary\u201d that Trump was meeting with Powell.<\/p>\n

Dominion was at the heart of many of the wild claims aired by guests on Newsmax and elsewhere, who promoted a conspiracy theory involving deceased Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez to rig the machines for Biden. The network retracted some of the more bombastic allegations<\/a> in December 2020.<\/p>\n

Though Trump has insisted his fraud claims<\/a> are real, there\u2019s no evidence they were, and the lawsuits in the Fox and Newsmax cases show how some of the president\u2019s biggest supporters knew they were false at the time. Trump\u2019s then-attorney general, William Barr, said there was no evidence<\/a> of widespread fraud.<\/p>\n

Trump and his backers lost dozens of lawsuits<\/a> alleging fraud, some before Trump-appointed judges. Numerous recounts<\/a>, reviews<\/a> and audits<\/a> of the election results, including some run by Republicans<\/a>, turned up no signs of significant wrongdoing or error and affirmed Biden\u2019s win.<\/p>\n

After returning to office, Trump pardoned<\/a> those who tried to halt the transfer of power during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack<\/a> on the U.S. Capitol and directed<\/a> his Department of Justice to investigate Chris Krebs, a former Trump cybersecurity appointee who had vouched for the security and accuracy<\/a> of the 2020 election.<\/p>\n

As an initial trial date approached in the Dominion case earlier this year, Trump issued an executive order<\/a> attacking the law firm that litigated it and the Fox case, Susman Godfrey. The order, part of a series targeting law firms<\/a> Trump has tussled with, cited Susman Godfrey\u2019s work on elections and said the government would not do business with any of its clients or permit any of its staff in federal buildings.<\/p>\n

A federal judge put that action on hold, saying the framers would view it as \u201ca shocking abuse of power.<\/a> \u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER (AP) \u2014 The conservative network Newsmax will pay $67 million to settle a lawsuit accusing it of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":156395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[3881,91085,64,91084,91087,13672,4439,1226,51330,356,905,8605,69,90,91082,74452,820,57,91081,59,82,336,362,564,8006,28052,1571,50,91080,80,91086,61,67,132,68,93,91083],"class_list":{"0":"post-156394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-ap-top-news","10":"tag-bob-sellers","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-chris-krebs","13":"tag-chris-ruddy","14":"tag-co-state-wire","15":"tag-colorado","16":"tag-conservatism","17":"tag-conspiracy-theories","18":"tag-courts","19":"tag-delaware","20":"tag-denver","21":"tag-donald-trump","22":"tag-elections","23":"tag-eric-davis","24":"tag-fox-corp","25":"tag-fraud","26":"tag-general-news","27":"tag-hugo-chavez","28":"tag-inc","29":"tag-joe-biden","30":"tag-lawsuits","31":"tag-legal-proceedings","32":"tag-maryland","33":"tag-md-state-wire","34":"tag-misinformation","35":"tag-national","36":"tag-news","37":"tag-newsmax","38":"tag-politics","39":"tag-sidney-powell","40":"tag-u-s-news","41":"tag-united-states","42":"tag-unitedstates","43":"tag-us","44":"tag-washington-news","45":"tag-william-barr"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}