Newsmax agrees to last-minute settlement with Smartmatic over 2020 election lies: report

Right-wing cable news network Newsmax has reportedly agreed to a settlement with voting technology company Smartmatic over false claims that it aired in the wake of the 2020 election that accused the firm of "stealing" the election from Donald Trump.

CNN's Marshall Cohen reports that Newsmax and Smartmatic came to terms "in a last-minute agreement to avoid a high-stakes trial that posed a significant financial risk to the cable outlet."

Jury selection was set to begin this week in the Smartmatic defamation case, which has been making its way through the court system since 2021.

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Smartmatic and fellow voting tech company Dominion Voting Systems were the targets of pro-Trump disinformation campaigns after the 2020 election.

Dominion settled its lawsuit with Fox News last year in which Fox agreed to pay the company more than $780 million in damages.

Financial terms of the Smartmatic-Newsmax settlement have not been made available at this time.