During Fox News broadcasts, it was alleged that the presidential election results had been manipulated using voting machines from Smartmatic and those from Dominion, another voting machine maker that Fox News sued last year. The media group settled in that case and paid Dominion almost 788 million dollars (725 million euros) of the 1.6 billion that the company had demanded. Smartmatic is seeking $2.7 billion in the new case.
Earlier Wednesday, the judge ruled in favor of Fox News, ruling that the company can proceed with a countersuit, in which it claims that Smartmatic grossly exaggerates the damage suffered.
Fox News has always maintained that the theories shared during its broadcasts fall under free speech rights and that the company’s journalists were merely discussing allegations made by then-President Donald Trump and his supporters. However, according to The New York Times, then-Fox CEO Rupert Murdoch admitted during testimony in Dominion’s lawsuit that a number of his TV hosts endorsed Trump’s claims.