An appeals court in New York state on Thursday denied a request by Rupert Murdoch's Fox Corporation to dismiss part of a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit arising from broadcasting misinformation about the 2020 presidential election.
The lawsuit, filed by voting technology company Smartmatic, 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 claims of election fraud in the 2020 election that aired repeatedly on Fox News.
Fox News agreed in 2023 to pay $787.5 million to settle a similar lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, another voting technology company.
On Thursday, a five-judge panel in the First Department of the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court affirmed an earlier ruling denying Fox's request to have Smartmatic's lawsuit dismissed.
The justices said they found that Smartmatic's claims that Fox Corporation directed Fox News to “promote a disinformation campaign in post-election coverage, along with allegations of Fox Corporation's active participation in Fox News Network's day-to-day operations in related to that reporting”. enough to continue the case.
An attorney for Smartmatic, Erik Connolly, said that “Fox Corporation has attempted and failed to have this case dismissed, and the company must now answer for its actions at trial.”
In a statement, a Fox spokeswoman said: “We will be ready to defend this case surrounding extremely newsworthy events when it goes to trial.” She added: “As a report prepared by our financial experts shows, Smartmatic's damages claims are implausible, disconnected from reality and prima facie designed to chill First Amendment freedoms.”
