Voting technology company Smartmatic and the far-right network One America News said Tuesday they have settled a defamation lawsuit stemming from falsehoods they published about the 2020 election.
“The case was resolved under a confidentiality agreement,” OAN attorney Chip Babcock told CNN.
Both sides refused to share details of the agreement.
The case against OAN was one of a series of lawsuits filed against right-wing media outlets since the election. In the lead-up to the 2020 presidential race, pro-Donald Trump media spread falsehoods falsely suggesting that President Joe Biden was not a legitimately elected president.
Smartmatic sued OAN in 2021, claiming that the right-wing conspiracy network was a “victim” of the company and spread lies about its role in the 2020 election to “increase viewership and revenue.”
This development comes a year after Fox News reached a sweeping settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, another voting technology company that was similarly tainted in 2020. Fox News paid more than $787 million to settle that lawsuit, becoming the largest publicly known defamation settlement in the U.S. . date.
Smartmatic still has a lawsuit pending against Fox News, the smaller conservative outlet Newsmax, and several pro-Trump figures who also spread lies about the election.
OAN has established itself as perhaps the most extreme pro-Trump news outlet. Sometimes its correspondents cross the borders and practice right-wing politics.
The little-watched television regularly devotes its time to baseless conspiracy theories supporting Trump, most notably the 2020 election.
The channel worked closely with Russian agents on a propaganda documentary during Trump’s first impeachment in 2019 over allegations that he pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rivals. One of his reporters, who is also a lawyer, even worked with Trump’s legal team to undermine the results of the 2020 election.
OAN settled a defamation lawsuit in September with former Dominion CEO Eric Coomer, whose case exposed how the network worked with former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell and others to lie about the election.
DirecTV dropped the far-right network from its lineup in 2022, dealing a major blow to the outlet, and hurting the network’s viewership and revenue.
Smartmatic alleges in its lawsuit that OAN hosts and guests made dozens of false claims about the company’s role in the 2020 election, and network figures have repeatedly said Smartmatic’s software was used in voting machines “in 30 states,” including hotly contested states. Lake Michigan and the state. Pennsylvania. Smartmatic is only used in one county in California.