The election technology company Smartmatic alleges in court the existence of an email from a figure CNN says that details indicate was a top executive at One America News contacting Trump ally Sidney Powell, sharing purported passwords associated with staff members at Smartmatic.
“CNN pieced together who was involved in the email exchanges by examining court records from three separate cases stemming from the 2020 election,” that network said. And Smartmatic alleged possible “criminal activities” inherent to what transpired. “Discovery from the (OAN) executive team is critical to establishing actual malice because the (OAN) executive team may have engaged in criminal activities to further the election fraud claims generally and Smartmatic fraud claims specifically,” Smartmatic’s team said in court.
Smartmatic was one of the election technology firms named in false conspiracy theories of systematic fraud in the 2020 presidential race. The other, Dominion Voting Systems, also brought a bevy of defamation litigation challenging promoters of the lies.
The executive at the pro-Trump One America News allegedly involved in the purported email correspondence was network President Charles Herring. Powell, meanwhile, was among those criminally charged in the Georgia case from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over Trump’s wide-ranging schemes after the 2020 presidential election to hold power despite losing, with Powell pleading guilty. Smartmatic’s team identified the individual on the other end of the purported email exchange as “an individual who has already pled guilty to crimes relating to the 2020 election,” helping set up CNN’s identification of Powell.
CNN also identifies recent claims in a defamation case against Mike Lindell of the company MyPillow that seemingly suggest the pro-Trump figure received a similar email from another executive at One America News, Robert Herring. That evident email is dated to April 2022 — more than a year after Trump left office.
Trump himself has continued promoting false claims of systematic election fraud while a private citizen, having even clamored for a potential return to power absent another presidential election even happening. He faces his own criminal case from Special Counsel Jack Smith alongside charges in the Willis proceedings, all of which focuses on his ambitions of holding on to the presidency. Read more at this link.
