BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images/AFP
WILMINGTON, Del. — Following the 2020 election, allies of President Trump found a warm reception on conservative media outlets for now-debunked claims about election fraud. More than four years later, lawyers are still sparring over the role cable news executives like Newsmax's Christopher Ruddy played in broadcasting those claims, just as the company prepares to go public.
Ruddy's name was mentioned nearly as much as Newsmax itself during a day-long hearing Friday in a defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Systems against the conservative network. Dominion, a voting technology company, reached a $787.5 million settlement with Fox News in 2023 over similarly false claims on its airwaves.
This case hinges on the same basic allegations: That Newsmax hosts not only welcomed guests on their shows who peddled false claims of voter fraud, but that they supported those claims knowing they were false and did so to increase ratings. Conspiracy theory-laden claims about voter fraud and corruption at Dominion ushered it into a "slow death," Dominion attorney Eve Levin, because clients no longer wanted to work with it. Newsmax argues, much like Fox did, that Dominion's claims are "calling for censorship" and that its hosts were reporting on one of the biggest news stories of the moment.
Sitting in the front row of the sparsely attended hearing, Ruddy watched intently as Dominion's lawyers displayed images of his emails and texts, and...
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