By Jan Wolfe and Helen Coster
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Voting technology company Smartmatic on Wednesday sued right-wing U.S. television network One America News for libel and slander, according to court records.
Smartmatic’s complaint against OAN has not yet been posted to the court’s docket. The case is in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
A representative from OAN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Smartmatic, whose U.S. headquarters is in Boca Raton, Florida, in February sued Fox News, its parent Fox Corp and several Fox hosts in a New York state court, alleging they falsely accused the company of helping rig the U.S. presidential election in favor of Democrat Joe Biden.
In that case, Smartmatic also sued two lawyers aligned with Republican President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who pushed the election-rigging conspiracy theory.
Smartmatic’s lawsuit in that case stated the defendants should pay a combined $2.7 billion in monetary damages.
Fox News and its co-defendants have asked a judge to dismiss the case, arguing their commentary on Smartmatic was free speech protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Fox News, OAN, Newsmax, Powell and Giuliani also face defamation claims https://www.reuters.com/world/us/dominion-sues-newsmax-one-america-news-network-others-over-election-claims-wsj-2021-08-10 brought by Dominion Voting Systems, another voting technology company that found itself at the center of false conspiracy theories in the weeks after the November 2020 election.
Like Smartmatic, Denver-based Dominion is seeking billions of dollars in damages. Dominion has sued other individuals as well, including My Pillow Inc founder Mike Lindell https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-dominion/voting-machine-company-sues-my-pillow-and-its-pro-trump-chief-over-election-claims-idUSKBN2AM1LT.
Dominion scored an early victory in August when a judge allowed its defamation claims against Powell, Giuliani, and Lindell to advance toward trial.
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe in Washington and Helen Coster in New York; Editing by Ken Li and Jonathan Oatis)
