Executives Of Voting Machine Firm Suing To Silence Election Reporting Indicted For Bribery
A federal grand jury indicted Smartmatic executives for participating in an 'alleged bribery and money laundering scheme.'A federal grand jury indicted Smartmatic executives for participating in an 'alleged bribery and money laundering scheme.'Fox News runs segment debunking voting machine claims after legal threats from Smartmatic
After Fox News was threatened with legal action by election software company Smartmatic, it repeatedly ran a "fact-check" segment over the weekend that debunked many of the claims regarding Smartmatic that had been made by its on-air hosts, in an apparent retraction of those claims.
Smartmatic sent a number of right-leaning media outlets — including Fox News, Newsmax, and OANN — a demand letter last Monday accusing them of defaming the company with numerous false statements and threatening legal action if some claims that were made on air were not retracted.
The segment first ran Friday on "Lou Dobbs Tonight" on the Fox Business channel. The segment was introduced by Dobbs, who said, "Lots of opinions about the integrity of the election, the irregularities of mail-in voting, of election voting machines and voting software. One of the companies is Smartmatic. And we reached out to one of the leading authorities on open source software for elections, Eddie Perez, for his insight and views. Eddie is the global director of tech development at the Open Source Technology Institute. We asked him for his assessment of Smartmatic and recent claims about the company."
The clip then cut to Perez being interviewed by someone — clearly not Dobbs, although the interviewer was not identified — asking Perez questions about the Smartmatic controversy.
This is very bizarre. Lou Dobbs ran a segment tonight basically debunking his own lies about Smartmatic voting mach… https://t.co/H7otrUvgGv— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar)1608338115.0
Among other things noted by Perez in the segment, Perez stated:
- Smartmatic software was not used anywhere in the United States outside Los Angeles County.
- Perez has not seen any evidence that Smartmatic software was used to flip votes in the 2020 presidential election or any other election.
- Dominion and Smartmatic are separate companies, and neither has an ownership interest in the other.
- Perez is aware that an executive at Smartmatic has a "relationship" with one of George Soros' many foundations, but he is not aware of any other relationship between Smartmatic and Soros.
- There is no evidence that Smartmatic sent United States votes to foreign countries for tabulation.
According to Forbes, the segment was repeated in its entirety numerous times over the weekend, particularly on shows hosted by Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartiromo, who have been among the loudest voices at Fox in casting doubts on the reliability of Dominion voting machines and Smartmatic software.
A spokesperson for Fox would not confirm to Forbes that the segment was aired as part of a deal with Smartmatic or that it was aired as an attempt to avoid litigation, but instead merely characterized the segment as "fact-checks," apparently of its own on-air personalities. A spokesperson for Smartmatic would not comment to the Guardian about whether the video meets the demands of the company's letter, "due to potential litigation."
Election software company Smartmatic accuses Fox News of defamation, demands retractions, threatens lawsuits
Election software company Smartmatic on Monday demanded that Fox News and other right-of-center media outlets retract "false and defamatory" statements made about the company in the wake of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
In legal notices and retraction demands, the company accused Fox News, Newsmax, and One America News Network of making "dozens of factually inaccurate statements" as part of a "disinformation campaign" to discredit the results of the election.
Business Insider obtained a copy of a letter addressed to Fox News executive vice president and general counsel Lily Fu Claffee claiming that the network "continually and repeatedly published demonstrably false information and defamatory statements."
"Fox News told its millions of viewers and readers that Smartmatic was founded by Hugo Chávez, that its software was designed to fix elections, and that Smartmatic conspired with others to defraud the American people and fix the 2020 U.S. election by changing, inflating, and deleting votes," the letter stated.
The company, which designs and implements election security technology, was central to claims of voting fraud made by attorney Sidney Powell as part of the legal challenges to the 2020 election filed on behalf of President Donald Trump. Powell and others claimed that Smartmatic's software was created in Venezuela at the direction of socialist dictator Hugo Chavez "to make sure he never lost an election." She also claimed Smartmatic worked in partnership with Dominion Voting Systems, a voting machine manufacturer, as part of a conspiracy to illegitimately swing the election for former Vice President Joe Biden.
At the time, Smartmatic issued a statement denying Powell's claims and clarifying that no ownership nor financial relationship exists between itself and Dominion.
"Smartmatic had nothing to do with the 'controversies' that certain public and private figures have alleged regarding the 2020 U.S. election," Smartmatic said Monday. "Multiple fact-checkers have consistently debunked these false statements with stunning consistency and regularity."
"They have no evidence to support their attacks on Smartmatic because there is no evidence. This campaign was designed to defame Smartmatic and undermine legitimately conducted elections," Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica said. "Our efforts are more than just about Smartmatic or any other company. This campaign is an attack on election systems and election workers in an effort to depress confidence in future elections and potentially counter the will of the voters, not just here, but in democracies around the world."
Smartmatic's statement noted that contrary to claims made by Powell and others, the company's only involvement in the 2020 U.S. election was as a manufacturing partner, system integrator, and software developer for Los Angeles County's voting system.
Smartmatic has reserved "all its legal rights and remedies, including its right to pursue defamation and disparagement claims" should Fox News, Newsmax, and One America News Network refuse to retract their respective statements.
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