Newsmax will pay $67 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought on by Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems. In a lawsuit, filed months after the 2020 elections, Dominion accused the cable news channel of spreading false claims that the company’s voting technology had been manipulated to help Joe Biden beat Donald Trump.
Newsmax was among various right-leaning news channels that featured Trump allies who promoted these conspiracies, including former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell and supporter Mike Lindell of My Pillow.
Newsmax announced the settlement in an Aug. 15 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to the document, the network paid $27 million of the settlement on the day and the rest will be paid by January 2027.
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While multiple court rulings and investigations by election officials found that there was no evidence of fraud in the 2020 elections, these claims were still echoed by factions of Trump supporters in 2024. Dominion has said the election lies caused the company and its employees extensive harm, including death threats and lost revenue. “We are pleased to have settled this matter,” a Dominion spokesperson said on Monday. Newsmax was not required to apologize or issue a retraction as part of the settlement, according to NBC news.
Newsmax said in a statement that it “believed it was critically important for the American people to hear both sides of the election disputes that arose in 2020.” “We stand by our coverage as fair, balanced, and conducted within professional standards of journalism,” the organization added.
Delaware judge Eric M. Davis had ruled earlier this year that Newsmax had defamed Dominion but said a jury must decide whether the conservative news brand had done so with “actual malice,” which must be proved for a public figure to succeed in a defamation case. The company previously agreed to pay $40 million to the voting technology company Smartmatic to settle another election defamation lawsuit.
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Newsmax accused Davis of ruling in ways that “strongly favored the plaintiffs and limited Newsmax’s ability to defend itself.” It claims that the court’s actions, in this case and against Fox, “represent a direct attack on free speech and a free press.” These words were echoed by Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy, who suggested that it might be risky for companies to move to Delaware for that reason, a concern shared by other corporate officials after Elon Musk received an unfavorable ruling and moved his business incorporations from Delaware to Texas.
Newsmax is not the only conservative news channel that faced similar legal action because of content aired around the 2020 elections. Dominion also reached a staggering $787.5 million settlement in April 2023 with Fox News over similar issues.