Latest news with #Smartmatic
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
A key figure in Trump's conspiracy coalition goes on trial
Whenever President Trump sees his ally Mike Lindell, Trump pours on the praise. A 'patriot.' A 'brave guy.' The 'single greatest advertiser in history.' Right now, though, Lindell is something else: A defendant. The CEO of MyPillow, who built his business through incessant commercials and devotion to Trump, is on trial in Colorado over his tirades about the 2020 election. Opening statements happened Tuesday morning in a case brought by Eric Coomer, a former Dominion Voting Systems executive who sued Lindell for defamation in 2022. Coomer told CNN he was forced into hiding when bogus conspiracy theories about Dominion rigging the 2020 election against Trump led to a deluge of death threats. He later charged in the lawsuit that Lindell and MyPillow were 'among the most prolific vectors' of the lies and said the rhetorical campaign had 'devastating' real-world consequences. Dominion famously prevailed in a similar defamation lawsuit against Fox News in 2023 when Fox agreed to pay the company $787.5 million. Dominion has numerous other lawsuits still pending. Coomer also settled one of his other suits, this one against the far-right network One America News, in 2023. But Coomer's case against Lindell has reached a jury, and he is expected to take the stand as soon as Tuesday afternoon. For plaintiffs like Coomer, one of the hopes is that legal victories could cause partisan talking heads to think twice before sowing doubt about future elections. Lindell, forever a showman, has repositioned himself as a free speech warrior amid widespread condemnation of his lies about the 2020 election. The pillow businessman recently claimed that 'I'm in ruins' as a result of the numerous lawsuits stemming from his election-related claims. Both Dominion and another voting tech company, Smartmatic, are actively suing Lindell for defamation. Smartmatic alleges that Lindell 'generated profits for his company by skillfully incorporating product promotions to his defamation campaign.' In March, a federal judge in Minnesota found that Lindell was in contempt of court because Lindell had failed to turn over required documents in the Smartmatic case. Lindell has attempted to turn the current Colorado trial into both a media circus and a fundraising opportunity. His obscure online video network, appropriately named LindellTV, has portrayed him as a martyr and promoted his pillows simultaneously. Host Emerald Robinson — a well-known conspiracy theorist like her boss — has called the case 'the most important trial in the history of American elections.' Lindell's running online commentary has doubled as a potential preview of his legal defense. 'I didn't know the guy,' Lindell said Monday, apparently referring to Coomer, claiming 'he came after me' and 'this is very, very organized.' Lindell also recast the defamation trial as a crusade for 'secure elections' and repeated some of his discredited talking points about electronic voting machines. But what he says on the courthouse steps is one thing; what is said in court is another. Notably, Lindell's attorneys said Tuesday that they won't try to prove his election lies during the trial. 'All Mike Lindell did was talk,' Lindell's lawyer, Chris Kachouroff, reportedly told the jury. 'Mike believed that he was telling the truth,' the lawyer added. 'It doesn't have to be true.' Lindell has received support from some high-profile MAGA media figures, including Steve Bannon, who interviewed Lindell on the 'War Room' podcast Tuesday morning. Bannon gave Lindell time to 'sell us a pillow and some sheets,' and the veteran salesman obliged, telling viewers that MyPillow sales revenues are underwriting his defense. Lindell's number one supporter remains the president. When both men spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, Trump lamented the 'FBI thugs' who seized Lindell's phone during an investigation in 2022. 'I want to thank you on behalf of everybody, Mike, you put up with a tremendous amount,' Trump said. 'He never changed his mind. He said that election of 2020 was rigged and he's more of a believer today than he was even four years ago. But now it's OK to say it, Mike! Now it's fine.' Lindell is a key member of Trump's conspiracy coalition — a group of MAGA media personalities and their legions of followers who embrace and promote various politically charged theories that bear little if any connection to reality. A wild new example emerged last weekend: Trump's amplification of a Truth Social post imagining that former president Joe Biden was actually a robot clone when he was in office between 2021 and 2024. On CNN's 'NewsNight,' anchor Abby Phillip pointed out that 'for two months, all the attention's been on the mental acuity of the previous president,' meaning Biden. 'And while the scrutiny is justified, what about the current president? After all, he's pushing a batshit conspiracy theory that Joe Biden was executed in 2020 and replaced with a clone robot.' The Bulwark editor-at-large Bill Kristol reacted by saying, 'Trump doesn't believe it,' but he knows many of his supporters 'love conspiracy theories,' and 'the conspiracists are a big part of the Trump administration.' In other words, Trump's repost was appealing to that conspiracy coalition — a group that is both entertained and motivated by his theories. While Trump-promoting outlets like Fox News laughed off the Trump repost, some media critics said it should be taken seriously. It is evidence of 'Trump's disordered mental state,' Stephen Robinson wrote for Public Notice on Tuesday morning. Avery Lotz wrote for Axios that Trump mixes 'wild conspiracies with market-moving policies' in his feed on Truth Social. Lotz concluded, 'With no fact-checks or consequences for falsehoods, Trump can be, as he's shared multiple posts saying, 'right about everything.''
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Fox News accuses Smartmatic executives of deleting evidence amid 2020 defamation lawsuit
In court filings Wednesday, Fox News accused Smartmatic of "brazen and purposeful" destruction of evidence amid the voting machine company's multibillion-dollar defamation case against the media company. The filing from Fox claims that "nearly" two dozen executives and sales personnel at Smartmatic deleted data that was relevant to the damages claims the company is pursuing. This occurred, Fox claims, "either shortly before or while this case was pending." "For many witnesses, the spoliation is pervasive and resulted in the apparent deletion of all, or nearly all, of their mobile data," the filing, which was largely redacted from public view, claims. "The destroyed text messages have left serious gaps in the record from individuals who were directly responsible for developing Smartmatic's farfetched damages story." MORE: Smartmatic alleges Fox News destroyed text messages in 2020 election case as Fox wins new documents Smartmatic sued Fox News in 2021, claiming Fox "knowingly and intentionally" spread false claims of voting machine fraud in the wake of the 2020 election. Smartmatic is seeking $2.7 billion in damages -- a number Fox has called "outlandish." Wednesday's filing alleges that Smartmatic's CEO "ordered" the company's president, in writing, to delete messages that were "discussing critical damages issues." The filing also claims that an executive at Smartmatic "directed his subordinates to doctor key customer records to manufacture support for the massive damages case Smartmatic had invented.'" "And while they should have been retaining documents, key Smartmatic employees deleted their mobile messages, depriving Fox of yet more evidence undermining Smartmatic's unsupported damages claim," the filing said. The filing from Fox News comes one week after Smartmatic accused Fox News of destroying text messages as part of the lawsuit. Smartmatic claims those Fox executives who "deleted their texts" include founder Rupert Mudoch and chairman Lachlan Murdoch. "The destruction was not isolated or accidental," the filing from Smartmatic, which was largely redacted, claimed. "It was extensive and willful." In its own filing Wednesday, Fox News disputed that account, saying it "voluntarily disclosed to Smartmatic the gaps in its own production of mobile data -- all of which were inadvertent." "There is zero evidence of any bad intent or culpability on the part of anyone at Fox to spoliate evidence or conceal anything," the filing said. "Fox undertook extensive mitigation measures to remedy the gaps and produced thousands of text messages and emails to Smartmatic." Smartmatic attorney Erik Connolly, responding to Fox's filing Wednesday, said in a statement, "Fox continues to smear Smartmatic to distract from the truth: Fox lied following the 2020 election and has repeatedly lied to shield itself from accountability in this case. Fox's baseless attacks are nothing more than retaliation, a deliberate effort to avoid addressing its own destruction of evidence." Fox News accuses Smartmatic executives of deleting evidence amid 2020 defamation lawsuit originally appeared on
Washington Post
16-05-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Smartmatic says evidence shows Fox execs didn't believe election claims
Fox News employees, up and down the corporate ladder, did not believe that the 2020 election was rigged, despite claims that were later broadcast on the network implicating voting technology company Smartmatic in a broader conspiracy to throw the election for Joe Biden, according to newly unsealed documents. 'This case presents unprecedented evidence of actual malice — admissions of disbelief from dozens of individuals across every level of Fox's organization from the show runners to the Chairman himself,' lawyers for Smartmatic wrote in a filing as part of its $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox, citing company co-founder Rupert Murdoch. 'No court has ever encountered such a mountain of confessions from those responsible for publishing defamatory statements.'
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Fox News Granted Access to Smartmatic Bribery Indictment for Defamation Suit Defense
Fox News secured a key victory this week for its defense in the defamation lawsuit filed against it by the electronic voting systems company Smartmatic. On Wednesday, a New York appeals court overturned a lower court ruling and granted the conservative cable news channel access to materials from the 2024 federal bribery indictment against several Smartmatic executives. Then on Thursday, Fox filed a 156-page brief outlining its arguments for a summary judgment, following on an initial request it made May 1. In august, three current and former Smartmatic executives, including the company's cofounder and president Roger Piñate. were charged in connection with an alleged bribery scheme in the Philippines. According to the Justice Department, Piñate and a colleague funneled bribes of more than $1 million to the chairman of the Philippines' electoral commission 'to obtain and retain business related to providing voting machines and election services for the 2016 Philippine elections.' All the defendants have pled not guilty and the company denies the accusations. Fox has maintained that materials related to the indictment are necessary for its defense against the defamation suit, filed by Smartmatic over false claims of voter fraud and election rigging in 2020, spread by multiple Fox News hosts at the time. In part, Fox argues that Smartmatic's reputation was damaged more by its highly scrutinized dealings in foreign countries than by anything said on the network during the 2020 election period. 'We are pleased with the Court's ruling that materials about Smartmatic executives' indictments are 'plainly relevant' to its lack of damages. The factual evidence shows that Smartmatic's business and reputation were badly suffering long before any claims by President Trump's lawyers on Fox News,' the network said in a statement Wednesday. Meanwhile on Thursday, the company's summary judgment brief, filed with the New York Supreme Court, argued among other things that Smartmatic's business had already 'cratered' before the 2020 election and that audited financial statements show 'no profit record to serve as a basis for projecting millions of dollars in future profits.' The filing also argues that any loss of new customers since 2024 would be due to the aforementioned indictment, that Smartmatic hasn't demonstrated proof of actual intent to harm it, and that the suit is without merit. You can read the full filing here. The filing comes after Smartmatic, in a separate filing, accused Fox News and several top executives of deleting evidence pertaining to the lawsuit. About that, Fox representatives said in a statement, 'Smartmatic is desperately attempting to distract from the court's ruling for FOX and re-opening discovery into the federal indictment of key Smartmatic executives for bribery. FOX actually voluntarily disclosed the materials involved and this was resolved two years ago. FOX will shortly file a motion outlining Smartmatic's intentional failure to preserve evidence, including direct written instructions by Smartmatic's CEO to delete relevant text messages on the eve of filing this lawsuit.' The post Fox News Granted Access to Smartmatic Bribery Indictment for Defamation Suit Defense appeared first on TheWrap.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Smartmatic Accuses Fox, Rupert Murdoch of Destroying Evidence in $2.7 Billion Defamation Lawsuit Over 2020 Election
In a new court filing, Smartmatic accused top executives at Fox News, including Rupert Murdoch, of intentionally destroying evidence pertaining to the company's $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit. Smartmatic is suing the conservative cable news channel for defamation related to the numerous false claims Fox News hosts made about voter fraud in 2020. Those claims included false accusations that voting machine companies like Smartmatic somehow participated in such fraud in order to rig the 2020 election against Donald Trump. Fox News previously reached a $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over those same false claims of election fraud in April 2023. In the new filing, Smartmatic asserted that Fox News executives — including Murdoch, his son Lachlan Murdoch and Fox's chief legal officer Viet Dinh — 'orchestrated the destruction of text messages across all levels of their corporate hierarchy… despite a clear duty to preserve evidence.' Further, the filing continues, this destruction 'was extensive and willful.' Fox naturally denies the accusations and in a statement, representatives said, 'Smartmatic weakly attempts to resurrect stale, baseless discovery issues that actually were disclosed by Fox and resolved two years ago. These issues have no bearing on the merits of Smartmatic's case, which has fallen apart at every turn.' Co-defendants in Smartmartic's 2023 defamation lawsuit against Fox Corporation also include on-air personalities Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartiromo, along with Debi Segura, the administrator of the late Lou Dobbs' estate. Smartmatic has previously settled defamation lawsuits with other conservative news channels over similar false claims of voting fraud: Newsmax revealed in a regulatory filing in March that it paid out $40 million to the Florida-based voting systems company, and One America News Network (OAN) settled a suit in April 2024. The post Smartmatic Accuses Fox, Rupert Murdoch of Destroying Evidence in $2.7 Billion Defamation Lawsuit Over 2020 Election appeared first on TheWrap.
