The New York judge overseeing Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox issued two rulings today, handing each side a win.
Smartmatic sued Fox , network personalities and guests in 2021, claiming that they amplified false claims that the election systems company was involved in rigging the 2020 election.
Another company, Dominion Voting Systems, also sued Fox, but settled the case for $787.5 million last year just as it was about to go to trial in a Delaware Court.
In one ruling, New York Judge David Cohen refused to dismiss Smartmatic’s claims against Fox Corporation, concluding that the election systems company had “sufficiently alleged” that Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch played “an affirmative role” in the broadcast of defamatory statements. The ruling is not a decision on whether the Smartmatic claims are true, just that the company had cleared the threshold in its lawsuit with enough factual allegations to be a triable issue.