Newsmax Settled Smartmatic Lawsuit for $40 Million, Unveiled Court Docs Show

Last year, Newsmax settled a lawsuit brought forth by voting technology firm Smartmatic. We now know just how much the company paid to settle the case.

In a public regulatory filing released this week, Newsmax revealed it cost $40 million to end the lawsuit from Smartmatic. Additionally, the company gave the election machine firm 2,000 shares of preferred stock as part of the settlement in advance of the IPO for Newsmax expected later this year.

“We entered into a confidential settlement with Newsmax in September to resolve litigation and cannot comment further on the details,” Smartmatic external legal counsel J. Erik Connolly said in a statement. “We are now focused on our litigation against Fox News for defaming Smartmatic and knowingly lying to their viewers about Smartmatic’s role in the 2020 election. We look forward to presenting our evidence to a jury and finally having the opportunity to hold Fox accountable for its harmful actions.”

The lawsuit centered around false claims made by Newsmax hosts and guests about the validity of the 2020 presidential election and the role Smartmatic played in the theory.

Smartmatic settled a similar lawsuit with One America News Network last year. It has a similar case against FOX Corp. and Fox News which is scheduled to begin trial later this year.

The $40 million settlement for Smartmatic pales in comparison to the $787.5 million settlement Fox News paid another election machine company — Dominion Voting Systems — as part of a high-profile case that was settled in April 2023.

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