New York Court Says Fox, Rudy Giuliani Can’t Escape Defamation Lawsuit Over BS Stolen Election Claims

Defamation

from the way-to-fuck-up,-fuckups dept

Donald Trump and his supporters are unable to process facts. That inability led to many of them engaging in questionable election-related lawsuits and extremely questionable election-related public statements. Alleging a “stolen” election, Trump and his backers claimed, without any supporting evidence, voting machines/software made by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic conspired to rob the lame duck of a second term in office.

Windbags of all varieties not only opined about widespread election fraud, they made statements of fact that apparently contained no facts. While Trump and his fanbase sued states and a laundry list of people they felt had wronged them, these companies decided to start suing back.

So far, the entities with actual facts on their side appear to be winning. Dominion Voting Systems has been granted permission to continue its lawsuit against Fox News for its participation in delivering false claims about the company. Now, it’s Smartmatic’s turn. A New York appeals court has ruled [PDF] Fox can’t escape this defamation lawsuit. (via Volokh Conspiracy)

The decision is short (four pages!) but pretty damn sweet. It denies the anti-SLAPP motion and other motions to dismiss filed by the defendants (which include Fox News, Fox News personalities Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs, and Maria Bartiromo, and frequent Fox News guests Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell). As the court points out, Smartmatic has alleged enough to sustain the lawsuit’s continuance.

Supreme Court [this refers to the lower level trial court] correctly declined to dismiss the defamation claims asserted against Fox News, Dobbs, Bartiromo, and Giuliani. Under New York’s Anti-SLAPP statute (Civil Rights Law §§ 76-a[1][a], [2]), to withstand dismissal under CPLR 3211(g)(1), the claims pleaded must have “a substantial basis in law,” which requires “such relevant proof as a reasonable mind may accept as adequate to support a conclusion or ultimate fact” (Golby v N & P Engrs. & Land Surveyor, PLLC, 185 AD3d 792, 793-794 [2d Dept 2020]). The meticulously detailed complaint satisfied the requirements of CPLR 3211(g)(1).

More specifically, the court says the complaint filed by Smartmatic contains “significant allegations” the multiple defendants “made defamatory statements” about the company’s supposed involvement in the rigging of the 2020 election. It also says the Fox News “reporters” did more than report on defamatory statements made by Trump supporters. They also advanced these views by granting them credence and offering supporting statements of their own — statements that appear to have recklessly disregarded the truth.

In fact, according to the allegations in the complaint, Fox News, Dobbs, and Bartiromo stated that Smartmatic’s election technology and software were widely used in the 2020 election and in Dominion machines to switch votes, when they actually knew, or easily could have known had they not purposefully avoided publicly available knowledge, that in 2020, the Smartmatic technology was used only in Los Angeles County and that the vote switching claims otherwise had no support… Based on the same \ reasoning, the claims against Pirro, which are based on similar allegations of defamatory statements made with actual malice, must be reinstated.

Yep. They screwed up. And someone who thought he might have time to head home and wipe the hair dye-tainted flop sweat from his brow is now back in the (liable/libel) mix, thanks to the New York appellate court.

However, Supreme Court erred in dismissing the third and fifth causes of action as against defendant Giuliani, and we reinstate those claims.

It is to LOL. The guy who managed to give opportunistic, bottom-feeding lawyers a bad name is still potentially on the hook for millions in defamation.

The only party to be granted an exit is Fox Corporation itself. Smartmatic’s lawsuit — as “meticulously detailed” as it is — doesn’t have enough in it to show Fox Corp. itself engaged in defamation. The eminently sanctionable Sidney Powell is also allowed to walk away from this lawsuit. But that’s only because she chose to spend most of her time (allegedly) defaming Dominion Voting Systems. She’s still a viable defendant in that company’s lawsuits.

These defendants may have cast their lot with Trump, but the loyalty only goes one way. While Trump no doubt benefited from their agitating on his behalf, these defendants are on their own when it comes to shelling out damages should the case be resolved in Smartmatic’s favor. That’s the thing about grifting. It’s a team effort until there are consequences to be suffered. Then everyone is on their own, ignored by former compatriots who are putting as much distance between them and the resulting damage as possible.

Companies: fox news, smartmatic