After repeatedly voicing claims that the Nov. 3 election was rigged, Lou Dobbs fact-checked himself on Friday night in a surprising about-face that came after threats of legal action. An expert from the Open Source Election Technology Institute appeared on a pre-taped segment of Lou Dobbs’s program Friday evening to debunk conspiracy theories that have been amplified on Fox News concerning election technology company Smartmatic. The segment was brought on by a legal demand letter from Smartmatic, a company that Dobbs and others had placed front and center in their phony election fraud claims. The company finally had enough of the “false and defamatory statements and reports” Fox has aired and demanded the network issue a retraction.

The fact-checking segment that Fox chose to air on Dobbs' program on Friday, which fell short of the retraction that Smartmatic had demanded, will also be aired on Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartiromo's programs. Smartmatic alleges Fox has made numerous false statements about the company on its programs. “Fox News has engaged in a concerted disinformation campaign against Smartmatic,” the letter said. “Fox News told its millions of viewers and readers that Smartmatic was founded by [the late Venezuelan President] Hugo Chávez, that its software was designed to fix elections, and that Smartmatic conspired with others to defraud the American people and fix the 2020 U.S. election by changing, inflating, and deleting votes.”