Dominion

Jun 17, 2022

Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . A judge has rejected Newsmax's effort to dismiss a defamation case brought against it by the voting software company Dominion, ruling that the right-wing media outlet pushed allegations of widespread fraud in the 2020 election that it likely knew at the time were not true. In 2021, Dominion sued Newsmax over such claims, seeking $1.6 billion in damages over claims aired by the network that its vote-counting software had been used to steal the election. Newsmax had sought to have the defamation suit thrown out, arguing it was an attempt to limit free speech. But in a June 16 ruling, Judge Eric M. Davis of the Superior Court of the State of Delaware wrote that Dominion had provided sufficient evidence for the case to move forward. In fact, Davis wrote, the company's lawsuit supported "the reasonable inference that Newsmax either knew its statements about Dominion's role in the [alleged] election fraud were false or had a high degree of awareness that they were false." Davis noted public evidence that the vote was not stolen, including statements from the Trump administration's own Department of Justice. A Nov. 12, 2020, statement , for example, issued by the federal Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency and cosigned by leading election security officials, stated that there was "no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised." Such evidence suggests that, even as the outlet continued to air claims against Dominion, "Newsmax knew the allegations were probably false." Newsmax did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. In 2021, a spokesperson for the company argued that it had "simply reported on allegations made by well-known public figures, including the president," when airing claims about election fraud. In a November 2020 broadcast, anchor Greg Kelly aired false claims from attorney Sidney Powell that Dominion software had been used to shift votes from former President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden, commenting that "the truth is finally told" and "the evidence is slowly emerging." Newsmax previously apologized for the content it broadcast in the wake of the 2020 election, including claims that a Dominion employee, Eric Coomer, had directed an effort to steal the election. "On behalf of Newsmax, we would like to apologize for any harm that our reporting of the allegations against Dr. Coomer may have caused to Dr. Coomer and his family," the company said at the time. Coomer had sued the company after receiving death threats. The parties later reached a settlement , the terms of which were not disclosed. Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com Sign up for notifications from Insider! Stay up to date with what you want to know. Subscribe to push notifications