A Delaware judge on Thursday denied Newsmax’s motion to dismiss a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems alleging the network’s reporting about the voting software company following the 2020 election was false.
Judge Eric M. Davis of the Superior Court of Delaware ruled Dominion at this stage has a case for defamation and allowed the company’s suit to advance.
“The Complaint supports the reasonable inference that Newsmax either knew its statements about Dominion’s role in the election fraud were false or had a high degree of awareness that they were false,” Davis wrote in his decision.
The judge also said Newsmax continued pushing election fraud claims, even though the network “knew the allegations were probably false.”
“Newsmax possessed countervailing evidence of election fraud from the Department of Justice, election experts, and Dominion at the time it had been making its statements,” the judge wrote.
Dominion sued Newsmax Media Inc. on Aug. 9, 2021, for $1.6 billion, arguing the right-wing media company deliberately made false statements about the 2020 presidential election and Dominion’s voting machines. On the same day, Dominion filed two additional defamation lawsuits against One America News Network and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne.
Newsmax told HuffPost it was “not surprised” by Thursday’s ruling. The same judge ruled in December 2021 that Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News could proceed.
“We are not surprised by the judge’s decision as this was a preliminary motion and he made a very similar ruling in the Fox News case,” the company said in a statement. “Newsmax reported on both sides in the election dispute without making any claim about the results other than saying they were ‘legal and final.’”
“We are confident that Newsmax will ultimately prevail given the strong First Amendment protections provided to ensure free speech and a free press,” the statement continued.