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On Monday, electronic voting system company Smartmatic took legal action against Fox News, Newsmax and One America News Network, demanding the outlets retract stories rife with “false and defamatory statements” about its role in the 2020 election.
Each outlet published “dozens of factually inaccurate statements,” Smartmatic claimed in the legal notices, all of which could have easily been disproven with a minimal amount of effort.
Instead of conducting basic research, however, Smartmatic said the right-wing outlets engaged in what it characterized as a “disinformation campaign” intended to discredit the outcome of the election.
“They have no evidence to support their attacks on Smartmatic because there is no evidence,” Antonio Mugica, CEO of Smartmatic said in a statement. “This campaign was designed to defame Smartmatic and undermine legitimately conducted elections.”
“Our efforts are more than just about Smartmatic or any other company,” Mugica continued. “This campaign is an attack on election systems and election workers in an effort to depress confidence in future elections and potentially counter the will of the voters, not just here, but in democracies around the world.”
In its letter to Fox, the Florida-based company specifically calls out Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro and Jesse Watters as having advanced baseless statements in the network’s mid-November programming. President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and attorney Sidney Powell, to whom Fox News granted extensive airtime, also earn a mention.
Among other things, conspiracy theorists have claimed, without evidence, that Smartmatic somehow skewed votes in favor of President-elect Joe Biden while working in tandem with the voting system manufacturer Dominion Voting Systems.
Both companies have flatly denied that claim ― and many, many others. Notably, Smartmatic says its involvement in the 2020 election was limited to supporting Los Angeles County’s publicly owned voting system.
Smartmatic hinted Monday that defamation lawsuits against the companies could soon follow.
President Trump has continued to baselessly cast doubt on the results of the election, even after top officials at Department of Homeland Security determined it was the “most secure in American history.”
The Electoral College officially confirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s victory on Monday.
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