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.”
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 the statements from Newsmax were false and defamatory, allowing the case to proceed to a trial.
The trial, where a jury would decide whether Newsmax had broadcast the claims despite knowing they were false and the extent of damages to Dominion, had been set for earlier this year but was postponed.
Nearly five years after the 2020 election, a wave of litigation over the broadcasting of false claims is nearing a conclusion. In April 2023, Fox News agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million to resolve a separate defamation lawsuit over the network’s extensive promotion of conspiracy theories that falsely linked Dominion to interference in the 2020 election.
Newsmax settled a similar case brought by another voting technology company, Smartmatic, in September for $40 million.
Some cases are still underway. Fox News faces a $2.7 billion lawsuit from Smartmatic, which is set to proceed to trial in a Manhattan state court unless the parties reach a settlement. Fox has said it is willing to defend itself at trial, and it has criticized Smartmatic’s damages claims as “intended to chill First Amendment freedoms.”
Katie Robertson covers the media industry for The Times. Email: [email protected]
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