A judge has scheduled a major defamation case against right-wing cable channel Newsmax to go to trial in late September, putting the battle over 2020 election lies front-and-center at the peak of the 2024 campaign.
Newsmax and the voting technology company Smartmatic could still reach an out-of-court settlement, and further delays are possible. But if the September 24 trial date holds, the fallout from former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election will be on full display as he tries to return to the White House.
The trial would also be the first of more than a dozen high-profile defamation cases to face a jury, all stemming from the false claims that Smartmatic and another voting company, Dominion Voting Systems, rigged the 2020 election by flipping millions of votes from Trump to Joe Biden. Those lies — championed by Trump and his allies in Congress and the right-wing press — fueled the deadly insurrection on January 6, 2021.
The Newsmax trial is slated to take place in Delaware Superior Court, and Judge Eric Davis, who presided over the historic case brought by Dominion against Fox News last year, is similarly handling the Newsmax-Smartmatic lawsuit. The case is still in the discovery phase, and it’s possible Davis decides later that it shouldn’t proceed to trial.
Smartmatic filed the lawsuit in 2021, claiming that Newsmax intentionally promoted lies that the company was involved in rigging the election because it helped the network close the ratings gap with Fox.
“Newsmax published dozens of reports indicating that Smartmatic participated in a criminal conspiracy to rig and steal the 2020 U.S. election… Newsmax knew it had a story that was getting people to tune in to its shows, so Newsmax ran the story night after night. Newsmax knew it was a lie the whole time,’ Smartmatic’s lawyers wrote in the original lawsuit.
Davis allowed Smartmatic’s team to expand the lawsuit last year, to cover additional on-air statements from Newsmax hosts and guests that it believes were defamatory.
“Newsmax will show at trial overwhelming evidence that we never embraced stolen election claims and that we accepted Biden’s election while significantly reporting on criticism of President Trump’s claims,” Newsmax spokesman Bill Daddi said in a statement.
Owned by Trump ally Christopher Ruddy, Newsmax isn’t a media juggernaut like Fox. The network’s lineup features several former Fox personalities like Eric Bolling and Greta Van Susteren, as well as controversial ex-Trump White House official Sebastian Gorka and Clinton ally-turned-foe Dick Morris.
A trial could have significant implications for the First Amendment and how journalists cover Trump’s election lies. Further, a courtroom defeat for Newsmax could put the company in real financial peril.
The conservative network doesn’t attract a large audience like Fox News, but Newsmax’s ratings surged after the 2020 election. In the wake of the vote, Trump supporters flocked to the network as its hosts and guests questioned the legitimacy of Biden’s victory.
But Newsmax is also different from Fox in another key respect. In December 2020, after Smartmatic sent a letter to Newsmax threatening legal action, the network ran an on-air segment and published an article clearly stating there was “no evidence” that Smartmatic or Dominion ever “manipulated votes in the 2020 election,” even though “various guests, attorneys and elected officials” claimed otherwise on its airwaves.
In addition to the Newsmax case, Smartmatic is also suing Fox News, the fringe far-right cable channel OAN and Trump allies like Rudy Giuliani and Mike Lindell, who peddled the same election lies.
The September trial date was originally set for Newsmax and Dominion, who are engaged in a separate defamation lawsuit. But there were delays in that case, creating an opening for the Smartmatic case.
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