Fox News says Smartmatic lawsuit should be dismissed

Fox News Media filed a new response Monday in its battle against the $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit voting machine company Smartmatic has filed against it for spreading former President Trump’s false claims of election fraud.

Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro and Lou Dobbs, who are also the subject of the defamation lawsuit from the company, filed responses Monday as well.

The latest move comes after a filing Smartmatic made on April 13 that was itself a response to the motions Fox, Bartiromo, Pirro and Dobbs filed on Feb. 12 to dismiss Smartmatic’s initial complaint.

In their most recent filings, Fox, Bartiromo, Pirro and Dobbs reiterate many of the defenses they used when they first asked the court to dump the defamation suit.

All four defendants once again claim Smartmatic didn’t prove they were acting maliciously while discussing or reporting on the company and the election, a standard the U.S. Supreme Court set in the 1964 case The New York Times v. Sullivan.

In addition to the malice argument, Fox News Media, Bartiromo, Pirro and Dobbs each also offer separate reasons why the Smartmatic lawsuit should be dismissed.

In Fox’s reply, the company argues that Trump’s election fraud claims were newsworthy simply because he was a president making controversial statements and the press must be allowed to report on public figures making important allegations even when they are later proven false.

“The press does not lose its protection if the allegations are disproven; instead the reporting is part of the truthseeking process,” Fox New Media argued in its reply. “That is why virtually every media outlet in the country covered the President’s election-fraud allegations without fear of being sued if they were disproved in court. Smartmatic’s efforts to erode that bedrock constitutional protection are dangerous and should be rejected.”

In addition in their replies, Pirro and Bartiromo both claim they did not make any defamatory statements.

Bartiromo was interviewing others, her reply states, and Smartmatic “has not come close” to identifying statements that Bartiromo made herself that were defamatory.

Pirro’s reply argues, in part, that because she is a pundit her statements are opinions, not “factual representations and, therefore, cannot give rise to a claim for defamation.”

In his reply, Dobbs also argues that Smartmatic is trying to hold him liable for what Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell said.

Smartmatic is also suing attorneys Giuliani and Powell for making claims the company had a role in stealing the election from Trump.