If America is ever to get the truth re-established (and become a fact based democracy again), painful as it will be, it's good news that two maligned companies are aiming to set the record straight.
A voting technology company is suing Fox News, three of its top hosts and two former lawyers for Donald Trump - Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell - for $2.7bn. The lawsuit charges that the defendants conspired to spread false claims that the company helped “steal” the US presidential election, which (almost everyone agrees) was in fact fairly won by Joe Biden.
The 285-page complaint filed on Thursday in New York state court by Florida-based Smartmatic USA is one of the largest libel suits ever undertaken. Some may argue that it's time to move on, others may say it's just politics - but, surely, getting to the truth over rides everything? If a company lied to its customers, it would rightly be sued. Why should news networks or lawyers or politicians be treated differently?
On 25 January, a rival election-technology company, Dominion Voting Systems, which was also ensnared in Trump’s baseless effort to overturn the election, sued Guiliani and Powell for $1.3bn.
Unlike Dominion, whose technology was used in 24 states, Smartmatic’s participation in the 2020 election was restricted to Los Angeles county, which votes heavily Democratic. Smartmatic’s limited role notwithstanding, Fox aired at least 13 allegedly false reports stating or implying the company had stolen the 2020 vote in cahoots with Venezuela’s socialist government, according to the complaint.
This alleged “disinformation campaign” continued even after the then attorney general, William Barr, said the Department of Justice could find no evidence of widespread voter fraud.