The Justice Department has charged executives at the voting equipment company Smartmatic with a bribery scheme involving the Philippines, the Associated Press reported on Thursday.
The alleged bribes to election officials in that country, which total $1 million and took place between 2015 and 2018, "were made to obtain a contract with the Philippines government to help run that country’s 2016 presidential election and secure the timely payment for its work, according to a superseding indictment filed Thursday in a Florida federal court," reported Joshua Goodman.
The investigation began under President Joe Biden's administration. However, it also happens to come down against a company that has sued a number of pro-Trump media outlets for falsely claiming the firm rigged the 2020 election, including a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News.
Fox has already separately had to settle with another election equipment company, Dominion Voting Systems, for almost $800 million in a similar case.
However, some observers speculated that the indictment of Smartmatic executives could be weaponized against the company by defamation defendants.
"This is a huge boost for the people Smartmatic is suing for defamation over their 2020 election lies — Fox News, US attorney Jeanine Pirro, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Lindell, and others. (All parties deny wrongdoing.)" wrote CNN's Marshall Cohen.
