Erik Connolly, a lawyer for the election technology company Smartmatic in its ongoing defamation litigation against Fox for lies the media organization helped spread implicating the tech firm in nonexistent voter fraud, pushed during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper for financial penalties on Fox higher than what’s been imposed in the Dominion case. He also spoke in favor of an eventual apology and retraction from Fox, with an eye towards fixing some of the global reputational damage that Smartmatic has sustained.
Dominion Voting Systems is another election technology firm that was, like Smartmatic, implicated in sham claims of imaginary election fraud after the 2020 presidential race and also sued Fox. News of a settlement emerged just before opening statements in what would have been the trial on Dominion’s claims. Although the arrangement involves Fox paying three-quarters of a billion dollars, no requirements for an on-air retraction of the network’s lies about Dominion were included in the deal.
“Smartmatic was in L.A. County — L.A. County only,” Connolly observed, referring to the company’s limited involvement in U.S. elections in 2020. “And you can confirm that we are in L.A. County only by doing about a one-minute Google search… What Fox and the other defendants were doing was saying that we somehow masterminded an ability to rig a national election when we are only in one county. That level of recklessness is something you don’t normally see. The evidence that we will be able to put forward on this case is pretty overwhelming.”
Asked about whether Smartmatic would pursue on-air corrections and apologies from Fox for lies that the network helped propagate about the tech company, Connolly left the option open. “I want everybody to think of the long haul here,” he said. “Smartmatic is in this case for the long haul. They are looking to take this case through trial. They are looking to the vindication of a jury verdict in their favor… That was their intention when they filed this lawsuit; that is their intention today… They’re in this business for the long haul… In order for them to get back to where they were before this all started, where they can win the contracts that they’re now losing, they need to get an apology. They need to get a full retraction.” The Smartmatic case is still in the discovery phase, meaning the period before trial when respective parties can assemble relevant troves of information. Trial could be a long way out.
Watch Connolly at this link.
