Newsmax settles defamation suit by Dominion Voting Systems for $67M

by · UPI

Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Newsmax on Monday agreed to pay $67 million to Dominion Voting Systems in a defamation suit against the conservative media company over its 2020 presidential election coverage.

The announcement came as President Donald Trump on Monday reiterated his criticism of certain voting machines and mail-in ballots.

Newmax announced the agreement in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in which the two sides mutually agreed to resolve the litigation. Dominion, a private company based in Denver, provides voting equipment to jurisdictions in 28 states. The systems include touchscreen screens and paper ballot scanning devices.

The settlement will be paid in installments over three years, which the company said it "expects to fund through revenues."

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Newsmax, which went public in March with an initial public offering of $10 per share for $75 million, has a market capitalization of $1.56 billion.

Last September, Newsmax agreed to a settlement with another voting machine company, Smartmatic, before a trial. The settlement of $40 million wasn't disclosed until March.

In 2021, Dominion filed suit against Newsmax, seeking $1.6 billion and alleging certain statements made in Newsmax's coverage about the election were defamatory.

"We are pleased to have settled this matter," a Dominion spokesperson told CNN, declining to comment further.

"The judiciary's willingness to punish news organizations for reporting on matters of urgent national debate undermines the role of the press in a free society," Newsmax said in a news release.

After Joe Biden was declared the winner against Donald Trump in November 2020, Newsmax hosts and guests falsely claimed the election results were fraudulent and specifically took aim at voting machines.

Newmax didn't disclose whether there would be an on-air apology or acknowledgement about false claims that voting results were incorrect.

"Newsmax believed it was critically important for the American people to hear both sides of the election disputes that arose in 2020," the company said in a statement. "We stand by our coverage as fair, balanced, and conducted within professional standards of journalism."

Newsmax said it determined that Delaware Court Judge Eric Davis, who was presiding over the case, would not provide a fair trial in which the company could present standard libel defenses to a jury.

He presided over the voting machine company's defamation suit against Fox News, in which $787 million was awarded in April 2023 in a suit settlement.

Davis, who was appointed by a Democratic governor, Jack Markell, in 2010, earlier this year ruled that Newsmax aired defamatory statements about the company. He said a jury would decide if the lies were intentional and if so how much would be awarded.

"From the very beginning, Judge Davis ruled in ways that strongly favored the plaintiffs and limited Newsmax's ability to defend itself," Newsmax said.

The judge indicated that he likely would refuse to allow the jury to hear that Fox News had already paid Dominion $787 million.

Newsmax also noted Dominion was permitted to comb through extensive communications, including personal emails, cellphone text messages and other documents of reporters and company executives unrelated to the case.

"The Delaware Court under Judge Davis effectively enforced a confiscation of our property because our reporting was not always sympathetic to Joe Biden," Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy said.

Newmax, which is the fourth-highest-rated network of all major pay TV providers, became a public company in March and is listed on the Nasdaq. Its main offices are in New York City and Boca Raton, Fla.

The company reaches more than 40 million Americans regularly through Newsmax TV, the Newsmax App, website Newsmax.com and publications.

Trump, who continues to claim he won the 2020 election despite being told otherwise in court cases and audits, blasted the use of mail-in ballots and voting machines on Monday morning in a post on Truth Social.

"I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we're at it, Highly "Inaccurate," Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES, which cost Ten Times more than accurate and sophisticated Watermark Paper, which is faster, and leaves NO DOUBT, at the end of the evening, as to who WON, and who LOST, the Election," Trump posted.

Trump, who became a resident of Palm Beach in Florida in September 2019, has sometimes voted via absentee ballot, which is essentially the same thing as mail-in ballots. His legal residence previously was New York City.

Trump also spoke against the U.S. voting system during his appearance with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.

"Mail-in ballots are corrupt," he said. "You can never have a real democracy with mail-in ballots."