DE - Dominion Voting Systems vs. Fox News, $1.6B Defamation Trial for 2020 election lies, 17 Apr 2023 *Settled $787m* + add’l trials

[vls12345]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/14/politics/stefanie-lambert-patrick-byrne-dominion-2020-election/index.html

"Federal Judge Moxila Upadhyaya said Tuesday in a searing 62-page ruling that she was removing Lambert from the case because of her “truly egregious misconduct,” concluding that she “flagrantly and repeatedly disregarded court orders” by publicly disclosing “thousands, if not millions” of internal Dominion documents without any legal justification."

 

[Inthedetails]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/14/politics/stefanie-lambert-patrick-byrne-dominion-2020-election/index.html

"Federal Judge Moxila Upadhyaya said Tuesday in a searing 62-page ruling that she was removing Lambert from the case because of her “truly egregious misconduct,” concluding that she “flagrantly and repeatedly disregarded court orders” by publicly disclosing “thousands, if not millions” of internal Dominion documents without any legal justification."

To confirm which side that lawyer, who was reprimanded and removed from the case, was on:

"A judge barred an indicted, election-denying lawyer from being involved in one of Dominion Voting Systems’ 2020 election defamation cases after she publicly leaked the company’s internal emails.

The lawyer, Stefanie Lambert, had represented former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne in the lawsuit, which Dominion filed because he has repeatedly accused the voting technology company, falsely, of rigging the 2020 election against former President Donald Trump."

Same link as in quoted post.

 

[sds71]

Smartmatic v. Newsmax won't go to trial, after all. "Confidential settlement" suggests the $$$ terms won't be made public

https://twitter.com/x/status/1839387429368926587

 

[SouthAussie]

Smartmatic v. Newsmax won't go to trial, after all. "Confidential settlement" suggests the $$$ terms won't be made public

https://twitter.com/x/status/1839387429368926587

Last minute settlement. Newsmax must have made the $$$ amount healthy enough for Smartmatic to accept. The jury was already being selected for the trial which was supposed to commence next week.

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4901908-newsmax-settles-lawsuit-smartmatic/

 

[Smelly Squirrel]

What a super genius braniac.

Musk pushes debunked Dominion voting conspiracy theory at campaign appearance

The billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X has ramped up his support of his conservative super PAC and Trump.

www.nbcnews.com

At a town hall hosted at a high school outside Philadelphia, Musk referred to the false conspiracy theory that Dominion Voting Systems was part of a plot to rig U.S. elections in recent years

“When you have mail-in ballots and no proof of citizenship, it’s almost impossible to prove cheating,” he said, responding to an audience member’s question about election fraud. “Statistically there are some very strange things that happen that are statistically incredibly unlikely. There’s always this question of, say, the Dominion voting machines. It is weird that, I think, they were used in Philadelphia and in Maricopa County [in Arizona] but not in a lot of other places. Doesn’t that seem like a heck of a coincidence?”
.....
In a statement, a Dominion spokesperson disputed numerous aspects of Musk's comments.

"Fact: Dominion does not serve Philadelphia County. Fact: Dominion’s voting systems are already based on voter verified paper ballots. Fact: Hand counts and audits of such paper ballots have repeatedly proven that Dominion machines produce accurate results. These are not matters of opinion. They are verifiable facts," the spokesperson wrote in an email.

 

[Niner]

Since I have a TON of notes on this case - I shall go ahead & post this...

*Settlement - NY - Smartmatic v. Rudy Guiliani, Sidney Powell, Newsmax, Fox News & hosts Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo & Lou Dobbs - $2.7B defamation suit. New York Supreme Court
The election-technology company said in its February complaint that the defendants — including Fox News & hosts Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo & Lou Dobbs — spread disinformation about the November 2020 presidential election. Voting-machine company Smartmatic said they spread false claims about the presidential election.
6/17/21 Update: A New York Supreme Court on August 17, 2021 will hear arguments from Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell & Fox Corp. in their bid for the dismissal of a $2.7 billion defamation case brought by Smartmatic. The arguments are set for 9:30am in front of Judge David Benjamin Cohen.
8/17/21 Update: New York State Judge David Cohen on Tuesday signaled skepticism toward Fox Corp's (FOXA.O) bid to dismiss Smartmatic's $2.7 billion lawsuit that accused Fox News hosts & guests of making defamatory claims about the voting technology firm during the network's coverage of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. During an oral argument held virtually, Judge Cohen made comments sympathetic toward Smartmatic, which in February sued Fox & two of Donald Trump's former lawyers, Sidney Powell & Rudy Giuliani, after the attorneys falsely accused it of rigging votes against the former president. Smartmatic is a London-headquartered company with a U.S. unit based in Florida. Cohen did not say when he would rule on Fox's motion to dismiss the case.
1/26/22 Update: Dominion Voting Systems said this week in a court filing that there was no "realistic possibility" that it would settle its $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell & the pro-Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani & Sidney Powell. The company made its position clear in a new filing Monday night as part of the company's lawsuits against the trio for pushing an array of conspiracy theories about the election-technology company's role in the 2020 election. In the same filing, lawyers representing Powell & Giuliani reiterated their positions that their claims about Dominion's role in the election didn't meet the legal standard for defamation. "Powell & Giuliani are open to settlement discussions once discovery is complete & Dominion realizes that its claims are without merit & that it has no damages legally attributable to Powell & Giuliani," the filing said. "Powell & Giuliani have nothing to show remorse for & dispute that they have lied about anything." The claims were made in a joint filing in which the parties proposed a schedule to US District Judge Carl J. Nichols, who is overseeing Dominion's array of defamation lawsuits, to move the cases forward. In August, Nichols denied attempts from Powell, Giuliani, & Lindell to dismiss Dominion's lawsuits against them. He later consolidated the case so they would move to trial together. Lawyers for both Powell & Giuliani said in the filing that they planned to participate in discovery for the lawsuits, though Giuliani's attorneys said the FBI was in possession of his digital files. Lindell has refused to participate in the discovery process. He told Insider on Tuesday night that he planned to appeal Nichols' denial of his motion to dismiss the lawsuit all the way to the Supreme Court. Lindell has said he'll "never settle" with Dominion & is countersuing the company for $1.6 billion.
3/17/22 Update: After a New York state judge denied its motion to dismiss a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Smartmatic, Fox News filed four separate answers in the case: Fox News, Fox Corp, Maria Bartiromo & Lou Dobbs. Smartmatic has alleged that Dobbs, Pirro & Bartiromo have intentionally lied about the company to mislead the public into the false belief that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Trump. Smartmatic has said that its reputation has been “irreparably harmed” by the rhetoric from Dobbs, Pirro & Bartiromo, along with Trump’s personal attorneys Rudy Giuliani & Sidney Powell, when they falsely deemed the company responsible for rigging election results against President Trump. The hundreds of pages of response documents include denials of liability & writing that $2.7 billion is an “extravagant” number that is “divorced from reality.”
4/21/22 Update: Smartmatic sued Fox News & its anchors Lou Dobbs & Maria Bartiromo in February 2021, alleging the defendants “engaged in a conspiracy to spread disinformation about Smartmatic,” & New York Supreme Court Justice David B. Cohen ruled in March, 2022 that the $2.7 billion lawsuit can move forward against those defendants. Cohen dismissed Smartmatic’s allegations against Powell & Fox anchor Jeanine Pirro & dismissed some claims against Giuliani but let others move forward. More info here:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alison...mation-suits-stand-now-and-who-could-be-next/
11/30/22 Update: Smartmatic served former President Donald Trump’s lawyer & onetime One America News talking head Christina Bobb with a subpoena for documents that the company seeks over their multi-billion dollar defamation claims against Fox News related to the 2020 presidential election. Made public in a court filing, the subpoena seeks broad categories of documents from Bobb — but not her testimony. The broad subpoena seeks any documents & communications that Bobb may have “with or concerning” Smartmatic or Dominion, another voting machine company that was a target of pro-Trump conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election.
2/14/23 Update: Voting company Smartmatic’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News & several of its anchors can move forward, a judge ruled Tuesday, also reinstating some claims against attorney Rudy Giuliani, as Smartmatic & rival company Dominion Voting Systems pursue a dozen defamation lawsuits over baseless election fraud claims about their voting machines. A New York state judge ruled in March that the $2.7 billion lawsuit could move forward against those defendants but not against anchor Jeanine Pirro, an appeals judge ruled Tuesday that the case can move forward against everyone named in the suit, denying Fox’s motion to dismiss. Judge Nichols set a scheduling order in Smartmatic’s OANN lawsuit (w/Byrne, Newsmax, Fox News & Fox Corp) suggesting it won’t go to trial until at least fall 2024. It’s still unclear when the other defamation cases will move forward to a trial. Smartmatic’s Fox News lawsuit is seeking $2.7 billion in damages, but its OANN, Newsmax & Lindell complaints do not specify exact figures.
4/6/23 Update: Abby Grossberg, the former Fox News producer who alleges she was coerced into giving misleading testimony in Dominion Voting Systems' lawsuit about Fox’s handling of election fraud claims, has been subpoenaed in a separate voting technology company lawsuit against the cable news network. According to a subpoena dated Monday,4/3/23, Smartmatic Inc. directs Abby Grossberg to produce extensive documentation & records of communications regarding the claims aired on Fox regarding the 2020 presidential election. The subpoena specifically cites potential evidence & correspondence related to Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani & Sidney Powell, as well as the Trump Campaign & the Trump Organization. Grossberg's attorney Parisis Filippatos said that his client intends to comply fully with the Smartmatic subpoena.
4/26/23 Update: Fox News has agreed to provide voting technology company Smartmatic with additional material about its corporate chairman Rupert Murdoch & other top executives, as part of Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion lawsuit against the right-wing network. The agreement was announced Wednesday at a court hearing in Manhattan regarding the defamation case, which stems from Fox’s airing of 2020 election lies. New York Supreme Court Judge David Cohen scheduled the hearing after Smartmatic raised concerns about whether Fox was complying with its pretrial obligations to turn over relevant evidence. :We will produce the materials as quickly as we are able to,” Fox lawyer Winn Allen said. Fox also will give documents to Smartmatic related to Rupert Murdoch’s son Lachlan Murdoch, who is the CEO of Fox Corp., as well as relevant materials about Chief Legal Officer Viet Dinh & Raj Shah, a former Trump administration official who is now a vice president at Fox Corp. These materials will include deposition transcripts & exhibits, apparently from the recently settled defamation case involving Dominion Voting Systems, a Smartmatic lawyer said in court.
7/17/23 Update: Michael Flynn & Steve Bannon have been subpoenaed by Smartmatic as part of the voting technology company’s massive defamation lawsuits against Fox News & Newsmax over their promotion of 2020 election lies. Court filings made public last week in New York & Delaware indicate that Flynn & Bannon were hit with subpoenas, demanding that they sit for depositions & answer questions under oath. The depositions were initially scheduled for this week, though timing can change based on negotiations & other developments in the lawsuits. Bannon is also required to turn over subpoenaed documents to Smartmatic, including any communications with top officials from Fox News, the Trump campaign & the Trump administration about the 2020 presidential election, according to court filings.
9/26/24 Update: Smartmatic v. Newsmax won't go to trial, after all. "Confidential settlement" suggests the $$$ terms won't be made public.

 

[Inthedetails]

In a statement, a Dominion spokesperson disputed numerous aspects of Musk's comments.

"Fact: Dominion does not serve Philadelphia County. Fact: Dominion’s voting systems are already based on voter verified paper ballots. Fact: Hand counts and audits of such paper ballots have repeatedly proven that Dominion machines produce accurate results. These are not matters of opinion. They are verifiable facts," the spokesperson wrote in an email.

Snipped

Disinformation spread before an election by someone linked with a presidential candidate and who controls a communications company and who has a ton a money? Forget the hinky meter, alarms should be blaring across the nation.

jmo

 

[ilovewings]

What a super genius braniac.

Musk pushes debunked Dominion voting conspiracy theory at campaign appearance

The billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X has ramped up his support of his conservative super PAC and Trump.

www.nbcnews.com

At a town hall hosted at a high school outside Philadelphia, Musk referred to the false conspiracy theory that Dominion Voting Systems was part of a plot to rig U.S. elections in recent years

“When you have mail-in ballots and no proof of citizenship, it’s almost impossible to prove cheating,” he said, responding to an audience member’s question about election fraud. “Statistically there are some very strange things that happen that are statistically incredibly unlikely. There’s always this question of, say, the Dominion voting machines. It is weird that, I think, they were used in Philadelphia and in Maricopa County [in Arizona] but not in a lot of other places. Doesn’t that seem like a heck of a coincidence?”
.....
In a statement, a Dominion spokesperson disputed numerous aspects of Musk's comments.

"Fact: Dominion does not serve Philadelphia County. Fact: Dominion’s voting systems are already based on voter verified paper ballots. Fact: Hand counts and audits of such paper ballots have repeatedly proven that Dominion machines produce accurate results. These are not matters of opinion. They are verifiable facts," the spokesperson wrote in an email.

If I stated what I think of Musk I would get in trouble.

 

[Maat99]

If I stated what I think of Musk I would get in trouble.

I hope the defamation suit against Musk is already underway.

 

[branmuffin]

What a super genius braniac.

Musk pushes debunked Dominion voting conspiracy theory at campaign appearance

The billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X has ramped up his support of his conservative super PAC and Trump.

www.nbcnews.com

At a town hall hosted at a high school outside Philadelphia, Musk referred to the false conspiracy theory that Dominion Voting Systems was part of a plot to rig U.S. elections in recent years

“When you have mail-in ballots and no proof of citizenship, it’s almost impossible to prove cheating,” he said, responding to an audience member’s question about election fraud. “Statistically there are some very strange things that happen that are statistically incredibly unlikely. There’s always this question of, say, the Dominion voting machines. It is weird that, I think, they were used in Philadelphia and in Maricopa County [in Arizona] but not in a lot of other places. Doesn’t that seem like a heck of a coincidence?”
.....
In a statement, a Dominion spokesperson disputed numerous aspects of Musk's comments.

"Fact: Dominion does not serve Philadelphia County. Fact: Dominion’s voting systems are already based on voter verified paper ballots. Fact: Hand counts and audits of such paper ballots have repeatedly proven that Dominion machines produce accurate results. These are not matters of opinion. They are verifiable facts," the spokesperson wrote in an email.

He can be sued, too. He's an idiot who thinks the idea of free speech should have no repercussions. His whole media site is tweet after tweet of Musk still floating debunked conspiracies. You have to scroll down pretty far before you get to some other input. A classic example of "it's my ball, so we're gonna play by my rules, otherwise I'm going home."

 

[ilovewings]

He can be sued, too. He's an idiot who thinks the idea of free speech should have no repercussions. His whole media site is tweet after tweet of Musk still floating debunked conspiracies. You have to scroll down pretty far before you get to some other input. A classic example of "it's my ball, so we're gonna play by my rules, otherwise I'm going home."

I hope Dominion is drafting that lawsuit as we speak!!!

 

[sds71]

Setting the Record Straight: Facts About Dominion - Dominion Voting Systems

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT: FACTS ABOUT DOMINION Dominion is focused on supporting our customers who administer U.S. elections. We are closely monitoring claims around the 2024 election. We strongly encourage people to rely upon verified, credible sources of election information – sources that...

www.dominionvoting.com

 

[Smelly Squirrel]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1897711571788283972

 

[nhmemorymaker]

He can be sued, too. He's an idiot who thinks the idea of free speech should have no repercussions. His whole media site is tweet after tweet of Musk still floating debunked conspiracies. You have to scroll down pretty far before you get to some other input. A classic example of "it's my ball, so we're gonna play by my rules, otherwise I'm going home."

@branmuffin .... omg.... do you remember writing this one????

 

[branmuffin]

@branmuffin .... omg.... do you remember writing this one????

Well, you just reminded me? I guess I was naive, huh?

 

[Stunned]

Well, you just reminded me? I guess I was naive, huh?

We all were.

 

[Smelly Squirrel]

1/16/25

Colorado appeals court greenlights Dominion Voting defamation claims against conservative radio host

Radio host Randy Corporan lost his appeal after a lower court judge denied his anti-SLAPP motion, paving the way for Dominion Voting Systems employee Eric Coomer to sue him for defamation.

www.courthousenews.com

A Colorado Court of Appeals panel ruled unanimously Thursday morning that a former Dominion Voting Machines employee could seek defamation claims against a conservative radio host and the Denver network that hosts his show after the host claimed in 2020 that the employee had antifa ties and was attempting to fix the 2020 presidential election.

Following President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, Randy Corporan, an attorney who hosts a conservative radio show, interviewed Joseph Oltmann, a Castle Rock-based businessman who claimed he heard a man identified as “Eric from Dominion” say on an antifa conference call that he was going to make sure Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.
....
Corporon and Salem both appealed, and the Colorado Court of Appeals heard arguments in August before ruling Thursday morning that Coomer could still pursue defamation claims, though it instructed the lower court to dismiss Coomer’s conspiracy claims.

Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Eric Kuhn wrote in the 74-page opinion that Coomer was reasonably likely to succeed on his claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation.

 

[Smelly Squirrel]

3/22/25

Court hearing centers on Newsmax CEO's role in spreading election-fraud claims - NPR

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.

"Sidney [Powell] needs to check into a hospital," Ruddy said about a member of Trump's legal team who became pivotal to the spread of conspiracy theories about Dominion and voter fraud following Trump's 2020 election loss. (Powell has since pleaded guilty to charges of election interference in Georgia.) Dominion lawyers outlined other instances of Ruddy repeatedly pushing for guests like Powell to come on the network — and when Newsmax shows couldn't book her, they aired clips originally broadcast by Fox.
.....
Dominion lawyers argued that internally, Newsmax executives and staff knew guests like Powell, commentator Dick Morris and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell were "anything but reliable."

Yet Newsmax "implored them to come on," Dominion lawyer Davida Brook said in court.

She also showed on screen an excerpt of a quote sent from top Newsmax executive Gary Kanofsky, senior vice president of news and operations, to Executive Vice President of Programming and Content Elliot Jacobson.

"Simply giving them a microphone to spew more anti-election rhetoric and advance their claims without being properly equipped to question the legitimacy or factual accuracy of their assertions may be fun, but it's terrible journalism," Kanofsky said.

"How long are we going to have to play along with election fraud?" Newsmax host Bob Sellers asked showrunner Jerry Burke in another excerpt shown in court.

 

[SouthAussie]

"A federal judge ruled today that Trump could not bar the federal government from working with Susman Godfrey, the law firm that won a $787bn settlement from Fox News for a voting machine maker over lies aired about the 2020 election.

“The framers of our constitution would see this as a shocking abuse of power,” district court Judge Loren AliKhan said as she issued a temporary restraining order blocking last week’s executive order from the president, according to the Associated Press:

Trump’s order cited the firm’s election work as a reason it was targeted. Several other firms that have been targeted by Trump entered into settlements, promising to provide hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free legal work for the president’s favored causes. Susman and at least three others have chosen to fight and all have so far won in court.”

Judge says Trump officials have done 'nothing' to return wrongly deported man to US despite order

 

[Smelly Squirrel]

4/25/25

Mike Lindell attorney filed AI-generated motion citing 'cases that do not exist': Judge

Mike Lindell's lawyer allegedly filed an AI-generated motion rife with errors in a defamation case stemming from false statements about the 2020 election.

lawandcrime.com

A federal judge in Colorado issued a scathing rebuke of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell for allegedly submitting a court filing rife with errors because his attorney allegedly used a generative artificial intelligence program, citing several court cases that don’t exist. The filing came in connection with a defamation lawsuit against the pillow magnate filed by Eric Coomer, the former head of product security for Dominion Voting Systems, over the numerous false claims levied against him and the company by Lindell following the 2020 presidential election.