Fox News is asking a judge to sanction election software company Smartmatic, accusing the company of deleting key messaging evidence related to a high-profile defamation case. The accusation comes just days after Smartmatic filed a court document claiming Fox News had deleted its own internal communications.
$2.7 billion lawsuit over 2020 election coverage
Smartmatic is suing Fox News for $2.7 billion, claiming the network’s coverage of the 2020 election defamed the company and caused significant future business losses.
It also accused Fox News of claiming the presidential election could have been rigged in its coverage of Smartmatic’s voting machines, damaging the company’s reputation and future prospects.
Earlier during the week of May 18, Smartmatic accused Fox News executives of deleting text message evidence, writing in a court filing, “Fox has eliminated contemporaneous texts that would have revealed further evidence of what Fox executives knew about the falsity of their broadcasts.”
According to Smartmatic’s filings, the deletions were not accidental. The company described the actions as “extensive and willful.”
Fox News denied those allegations.
“Eleven million pages of discovery and over one hundred depositions have shown this lawsuit to be nothing more than a ploy to resuscitate an already failing company,” the network’s lawyers wrote in court filings.
Fox News responds with counteraccusation
In the latest court filing obtained by Straight Arrow News, Fox News claims that nearly two dozen Smartmatic executives and sales personnel deleted WhatsApp messaging data, which could be relevant to Smartmatic’s damages claims.
“On the eve of filing of this lawsuit, and while the U.S. Department of Justice was investigating Smartmatic and its executives for bribery and corruption, Smartmatic’s CEO Antonio Mugica, in writing, ordered Smartmatic’s President Roger Piñate Jr. — who has since been federally indicted for those crimes — to delete WhatsApp mobile messages discussing critical damages issues surrounding the outlandish $2.7 billion the company planned to seek from Fox.
“Nearly two dozen Smartmatic executives and sales personnel deleted data relevant to Smartmatic’s multi-billion-dollar damages claims either shortly before or while this case was pending,” the filing reads. “For many witnesses, the spoliation is pervasive and resulted in the apparent deletion of all, or nearly all, of their mobile data.”
Smartmatic’s legal team responds
Smartmatic’s legal team has denied the allegations in a media statement obtained by the Federalist.
“Fox continues to smear Smartmatic to distract from the truth: Fox lied following the 2020 election and has repeatedly lied to shield itself from accountability in this case,” said Erik Connolly, a Smartmatic attorney.
“Fox’s baseless attacks are nothing more than retaliation, a deliberate effort to avoid addressing its own destruction of evidence,” Connolly said.
Dispute centers on 2020 election coverage
At the center of the lawsuit is Fox News’ coverage of claims that the 2020 election was stolen and that voting machines could have been insecure, according to Trump’s legal team at the time. The electronic voting system company argues that such reporting harmed its brand and misled the public.
Fox News maintains that its coverage was both newsworthy and plausible at the time, adding that Smartmatic was already facing business challenges due to a separate federal bribery and money laundering indictment.
No trial date has been set yet
The case has been ongoing since February 2021. This week’s dueling accusations over deleted evidence highlight the escalating legal battle between the two companies.
No trial date has been set as of now. Straight Arrow News covered Smartmatic’s evidence deletion allegations prior to Fox News’ filing in response. You can find that full report here.
