Newsmax agreed to pay $67 million to Dominion Voting Systems to settle a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit over false reporting that the company’s voting machines helped rig the 2020 election against President Donald Trump. Despite settling the case, the conservative news outlet criticized the Delaware judge who oversaw the case as biased against the network.
Newsmax said Monday it would pay Dominion in three installments over the next two years.
“We are pleased to have settled this matter,” Dominion said in a statement.
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The settlement came more than two years after Fox News agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million to resolve similar defamation claims.
Dominion sued Newsmax in 2021, alleging the network “manufactured, endorsed, repeated and broadcast a series of verifiably false yet devastating lies.”
Newsmax blames judge for settlement
Newsmax continued to deny wrongdoing and said its decision to settle was driven by what it described as judicial prejudice.
“From the very beginning, Judge (Eric) Davis ruled in ways that strongly favored the plaintiffs and limited Newsmax’s ability to defend itself,” the company said in a statement.
It argued the judge “deprived the company of its ability to present a full defense” when he ruled in April that Newsmax had made “defamatory and false statements” about Dominion.
In its statement, Newsmax suggested without providing evidence that political favoritism was at play: “We were being punished for not being sympathetic to Joe Biden, who is from Delaware.”
The Delaware Superior Court declined to comment on Newsmax’s accusations of bias.
Comparisons to Fox News settlement
Newsmax also criticized Davis for barring jurors from hearing about the 2023 settlement between Dominion and Fox News. Newsmax said testimony about that case was “critical for the jury to understand that Dominion had already been compensated.”
Davis also presided over the Fox News case. Newsmax’s settlement with Dominion follows its agreement last September to pay Smartmatic, another voting technology firm, $40 million to to end a similar defamation case.
Despite the settlements, Newsmax has not retracted its coverage.
“We stand by our reporting as fair, balanced, and conducted within professional standards of journalism,” the network said.
