A Delaware judge ruled Thursday that the defamation lawsuit filed against the right-wing cable channel Newsmax by voting machine company Smartmatic should proceed to trial later this month, NBC News reported.
Judge Eric Davis rejected Newsmax’s attempt to squash the case and barred a pre-trial settlement, instead inviting a jury to decide whether the network defamed Smartmatic by airing falsehoods about the 2020 election.
“Newsmax reported on allegations regarding the Election and Smartmatic, but there remains a dispute as to whether Newsmax recklessly disregarded the truth,” Davis wrote in a 57-page ruling, CNN reported. “The jury must determine if Newsmax was doing what media organizations typically do — inform the public of newsworthy events—or did Newsmax purposely avoid the truth and defame Smartmatic.”
The trial is scheduled to start September 30, the Associated Press reported.
The Florida-based voting machine company sued Newsmax Media in 2021 for alleged defamation, arguing that the latter knowingly aired false claims that its machines were rigged during the election between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden.
In his ruling, the Delaware judge affirmed that not all of the alleged defamatory statements made by Newsmax were actually proven false, allowing the network to dispute this at trial. He also agreed that there was no evidence that the network was acting out of malice. However, the Thursday ruling represents an overall win for Smartmatic as Davis not only let the case move forward but reaffirmed that claims of a stolen election were totally false.
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