A company called Smartmatic, Fox News, One America News and Newsmax have helped spread false and defamatory claims that are not supported by factual sources and could have been easily removed by basic research.
“They have no evidence to support their attacks on Smartmatic because there is no evidence,” Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica said in a statement. “This campaign is designed to defame smartmatic slander and legally held elections.”
As President Donald Trump continues to attack the integrity of the voting system, some of his allies are relying on SmartMatic because of the services rendered by Los Angeles County to the 2020 election.
In its legal announcement to Fox News, Smartmatic Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani or former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell identified several instances where such theories spread in the air. The legal announcement that claims made about Chavez and Soros had no truth in them also identified events that helped the network’s pro-Trump campaigners, such as Lou Tops and Maria Bardromo, spread misinformation.
“Shortly after the election ended today, Fox News launched a false campaign against SmartMade,” the statement said. “During the campaign, Fox News republished dozens of false and misleading statements related to Smartmatic.”
The lawsuit was probably funded by Fox News, which said in a statement that it “believed that there was” no evidence or credible evidence to support the allegations “and that the network” could easily have detected the allegations and influences about SmartMatic by doing even a modicum. “
The legal statement added that “Smartmatic demands the full and complete withdrawal of all false and defamatory statements and statements published by Fox News.” “This retreat should be done with the same intensity and level of coverage that you used to defame the company in the first place.”
Smartmatic, which said it would set aside its legal right to pursue defamation claims against Fox News, One America News and Newsmax, said its response to conspiracy theories was “more than Smartmatic or any other company.”
“This campaign is an attack on electoral systems and electoral workers, to undermine confidence in future elections and to oppose the will of the electorate, not only here but against democracies around the world,” Mukika said.
A Fox News spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. There was also no representative of One America News, the small right-wing channel that sent the smartmatic legal notice.
Newsmax said in a statement that “SmartMatic has never said anything inappropriate about its ownership or software.”
“Individuals, including plaintiffs’ lawyers, congressmen and others, have raised questions about Newsmax about the company and its voting software, citing previously published statements about legal documents or Smartmatic,” Newsmax added in its statement. “As any major media outlet, we provide a forum for public concerns and discussions. We welcome and continue to do so in the past to counter such claims that Smartmatic and its representatives believe to be false.”
Smartmatic is not the only electoral technology company that is being forcibly pushed back against the unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that target it.