A New York state appeals court on Thursday rejected a request by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation to dismiss part of a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit stemming from the spread of misinformation surrounding the 2020 presidential election.
The suit, filed by Smartmatic, a voting technology company, is on track to go to trial in state court in Manhattan, although the parties could settle the case out of court.
Smartmatic sued Fox in February 2021, accusing the media conglomerate of defaming it by mentioning its name among false allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election repeatedly aired on Fox News.
Fox News agreed in 2023 to pay $787.5 million to settle a similar lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems, a different voting technology company.
On Thursday, a five-judge panel in the First Department of the New York State Supreme Court of Appeals affirmed an earlier decision that denied Fox’s motion to dismiss Smartmatic’s lawsuit.
The judges said they found that Smartmatic’s allegations that Fox Corporation directed Fox News to promote “a disinformation campaign in its post-election coverage, along with allegations of Fox Corporation’s active involvement in the day-to-day operations of the Fox News Network in connection therewith the coverage’ was enough to move the case forward.
A lawyer for Smartmatic, Erik Connolly, said that “Fox Corporation tried, and failed, to dismiss this case and must now be held accountable for its actions in the trial.”
In a statement, a Fox spokeswoman said: “We will be prepared to defend this case on highly newsworthy events when it goes to trial.” He added, “As a report prepared by our financial expert shows, Smartmatic’s claims for damages are baseless, unfounded, and intended to freeze First Amendment freedoms.”
