Trumpy News Channel Finally Pays Up for Crazy 2020 Lies
Newsmax avoided a defamation lawsuit trial by settling with Dominion Voting Systems.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Pro-Donald Trump outlet Newsmax has agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $67 million to settle the voting machine company’s defamation lawsuit against it.
The cable channel was being sued by Dominion for pushing the false claim that Dominion rigged voting machines at the 2020 election in favor of former President Joe Biden.
Filings show that Newsmax—whose Board of Directors features Alex Acosta, a former federal prosecutor who has been criticized for making a “sweetheart” Jeffrey Epstein plea deal—has agreed to $27 million this month as well as a further $40 million in the next two years to avoid going to trial, CNN reported.
“We are pleased to have settled this matter,” a Dominion spokesperson told CNN.
Alex Acosta resigned as Donald Trump’s labor secretary in 2019 over his role in the Jeffrey Epstein plea deal over a decade earlier when he was a U.S. attorney in Florida.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
The settlement is the latest large payout that a pro-Trump news network has had to pay out after spreading false claims about Dominion.
In April 2023, Fox News settled with Dominion for an eye-watering $787.5 million rather than going to trial after the voting company said its reputation had been severely damaged by the network’s repeatedly spreading false claims that its machines were used to flip votes to Biden in the 2020 election.
It is unclear why Newsmax settled for just $67 million, although the ring-wing cable channel has far fewer viewers and wields less influence than Fox News.
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There is also no indication in the settlement agreement that Newsmax will offer an on-air apology to its viewers for pushing the false 2020 voter fraud claims, or even acknowledge the payout, CNN reported.
Newsmax has been staunchly pro-Trump in its coverage for years.
Tom Brenner for The Washington Post via Getty Images
However, Dominion’s lawsuit, which was filed in August 2021, does appear to have spooked the channel.
In August 2023, Newsmax ran a pre-taped interview with Trump in which the Republican spouted his usual baseless claims about the 2020 election, including that he beat Biden by “many, many votes.”
After the interview aired, Newsmax host Eric Bolling had to provide viewers with an embarrassing disclaimer: “All right, folks. Now, just a note. Newsmax has accepted the election results as legal and final.”
In April, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis ruled that Newsmax did defame Dominion with its false vote-rigging coverage but that it would be up to a jury to decide if that proved “actual malice”—a legal requirement in defamation cases—and thus force Newsmax to pay out millions in damages.
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