Fox News‘ last-minute decision to pay nearly $800 million to avert a trial over accusations it defamed Dominion Voting System by broadcasting false statements that the 2020 presidential election was stolen is paying off.
A New York state supreme court judge, in an order issued Wednesday, found that Smartmatic must face Fox News’ counterclaims accusing the voting machine company of trying to suppress the network’s speech by bringing a $2.7 billion lawsuit. The court grounded the reasoning, in part, on the absence of a verdict concluding that Fox News defamed Dominion Voting Systems.
“There remained a triable issue of fact for trial in that action as to whether defendants acted with actual malice, which is an element that plaintiffs need to prove here as well,” the order stated.
But in a win for Smartmatic, New York Supreme Justice David Cohen refused to dismiss its suit against Fox. He found that the company “sufficiently alleged” that the network’s employees “played an affirmative role in the publication of the defamation at issue.”
“Moreover, plaintiffs have sufficiently alleged that Corp. employees acted with malice by purposely and deliberating publishing knowingly false stories about plaintiffs in order to benefit Corp.’s financial interests,” Cohen wrote.
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