The right-wing cable channel Newsmax has agreed to pay $67 million to settle a libel lawsuit that Dominion Voting Systems had brought against the channel for falsely claiming that the voting machine company had rigged votes in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
The settlement, which the companies completed on Aug. 15, was disclosed in an S.E.C. filing by Newsmax. It noted that Newsmax would make the payments in three installments by Jan. 15, 2027.
A Dominion spokeswoman confirmed the deal in a statement, saying, “We are pleased to have settled this matter.” Newsmax did not offer an apology, saying in a statement on Monday that it stood by its coverage as “fair, balanced and conducted within professional standards of journalism.” A Newsmax spokesman said the settlement did not require the company to make an apology or a retraction.
In 2021, Dominion sued Newsmax for $1.6 billion, accusing the cable channel of knowingly broadcasting conspiracy theories that falsely implicated the company in election fraud and vote rigging. Dominion accused Newsmax of making the baseless claims in 18 statements on television, as well as in a social media post. The statements included false claims that Dominion’s software had manipulated vote counts, that Dominion had ties to a Venezuelan company and that Dominion paid kickbacks to certain government officials.
In April, Judge Eric M. Davis of the Delaware Superior Court ruled that Dominion had presented “clear and convincing evidence” that...
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