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Fox News cannot depose billionaire in Smartmatic lawsuit

homesafetytechpros — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 02:24:37 +0000

NEW YORK, NY — MARCH 20: The News Corp. building on 6th Avenue, home to Fox News, the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, on March 20, 2019 in New York City, New York. Disney acquired Fox today in a $71.3 million deal (Photo by Kevin Hagen/Getty Images).

Fox News received mix news from a Manhattan judge on Thursday in an effort to obtain testimony about the valuation of voting software and hardware company Smartmatic Corp.

Attorneys for the network hoped to depose billionaire Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of business-themed social media website LinkedIn.

In a bench ruling, New York Supreme Court Justice David Cohen nixed the Hoffman deposition request, according to a courtroom report by Courthouse News Service. The network aimed to get Hoffman on the record over reported comments made by one of the billionaire’s longtime associates about a meeting with Smartmatic’s top brass.

At the same time, the judge signed off on a request to depose Dmitri Mehlhorn, Hoffman’s former political strategist and business partner.

The cable news network’s deposition requests stem from a July 2024 article in The Washington Post titled, “A billionaire is boosting a major defamation lawsuit against Fox News.” The article details Hoffman’s decision to make a “multimillion-dollar investment intended in part to help the company sustain its costly litigation.”

In the article by reporter Jeremy Barr, Hoffman’s own voice is absent; Mehlhorn, however, is quoted on his then-boss’s behalf.

“Not only is Smartmatic a great investment in terms of financial returns, this was a way to provide capital that would allow the truth to be found in the courts,” Mehlhorn said. “This is a company that is a great company with a great CEO, and this case is a great case.”

The decision to invest — later reported to be to the tune of $25 million — came about after Hoffman met with Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica to discuss the company’s financial condition.

Fox News, for its part, is largely concerned about comments Mehlhorn made to the Post that estimated the company’s valuation.

“The 2024 election is the biggest election in Earth’s history, and the market is massive, and Smartmatic was built to seize it, and they’ve spent the last four years dealing with a coordinated and orchestrated smear campaign,” he told the newspaper. “They could be a $400 million company right now if not for the slander and the smears.”

The network will likely seek to explore those comments in relation to the $2.7 billion in damages Smartmatic claims in their defamation lawsuit over false “conspiracy theories” about rigging the 2020 election which were allegedly reported by the network.

On Thursday, Fox News lawyer Winn Allen told the court that Mehlhorn’s comments show Smartmatic “grossly inflated” the damages they are seeking, according to Courthouse News.

The network argued Hoffman could help their defense since one issue is the valuation of the company prior to the alleged defamation. Allen reportedly said his clients prioritized Hoffman’s deposition because “he’s the one who put his money on the line for this company.”

Cohen was not convinced.

The judge ruled that Mehlhorn would be appropriate to depose because he was the one who commented on the investment to the media.

The deposition will be limited to two hours; the network will only be able to ask questions about communications and discussions Mehlhorn and Hoffman had with Mugica prior to the investment.

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In a statement, Fox News referenced the August 2024 indictment of other current and former Smartmatic executives. That criminal case, however, cannot factor into the civil trial, Cohen previously ruled.

“The evidence shows that Smartmatic’s business and reputation were badly suffering long before any claims by President Trump’s lawyers on FOX News and that Smartmatic grossly inflated its damage claims to generate headlines and chill free speech,” the network told Law&Crime. “Now, in the aftermath of Smartmatic’s executives getting indicted for bribery charges, we are eager and ready to continue defending our press freedoms and look forward to deposing Dmitri Mehlhorn.”

Law&Crime also reached out to a representative for Smartmatic, but no response was immediately forthcoming at the time of publication.

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Judge dismisses Ray Epps defamation case against Fox News

homesafetytechpros — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 02:46:35 +0000

Left: Ray Epps is seen talking with accused Jan. 6 rioter and Proud Boys member Ryan Samsel near the Peace Circle monument (via FBI court filing). Right: Photo of Tucker Carlson (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images).

An Arizona man who became a central figure in a right-wing conspiracy theory about the origins of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol has lost his court case against Fox News, which he accused of defaming him in the wake of the historic violence.

James Ray Epps said that Tucker Carlson — who parted ways with the network in the wake of its massive settlement with Dominion Voting Systems in April 2023 — falsely implicated Epps as a government plant who “helped stage-manage” the melee. As a result of the publicity, Epps says, he and his wife faced online attacks and threats of violence so severe that they had to leave their home and live in their RV.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jennifer Hall, a Joe Biden appointee, dismissed Epps’ complaint.

“For the reasons announced from the bench today, it is hereby ordered that Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss for Failure to State a Claim is granted,” Hall wrote in a terse one-page order (citations omitted).

Hall told the parties that Epps and his lawyers had failed to prove that Carlson had acted with “actual malice,” according to a courtroom report by The New York Times. The judge reportedly acknowledged that even if Carlson had “engaged in subpar journalism,” it didn’t mean he had acted with malicious intent, which Epps would have had to prove in order to win his defamation claim.

The judge further found that the guests Carlson brought on his show to discuss Epps were only sharing their “own commentary and opinions,” and noted that Carlson would sometimes acknowledge Epps’ own denial that he was working on behalf of the federal government at the time of the insurrection, the Times reported.

As Law&Crime has previously reported, Epps was seen in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 participating in various activities in support of then-President Donald Trump, including attending the so-called “Stop the Steal” rally that proceeded the march on the Capitol building. At one point, he was seen talking with accused Proud Boys members who were part of the charge at the area known as the Peace Circle that resulted in at least one police officer suffering a head injury.

The fact that Epps wasn’t arrested shortly after the riot — and that he was removed from the FBI’s Most Wanted list after reaching out to federal investigators himself — gave rise to the theory that Epps was a federal plant, sent to rile up the pro-Trump crowd and lead them into a “false flag” operation.

Epps has consistently denied these allegations. He testified in January of 2022 before the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack that while he did encourage pro-Trump protesters to head toward the Capitol, he never entered the building. He also said that he tried to talk people down from committing violence.

Epps himself faced criminal misdemeanor charges in connection with Jan. 6. He was sentenced in January by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, a Barack Obama appointee, to one year of probation.

The ruling marks the third significant recent legal win for the network. On Tuesday, a federal judge dismissed Hunter Biden antagonist Tony Bobulinski’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News and “The Five” co-host Jessica Tarlov over statements Tarlov made on-air linking Bobulinski to a conservative super PAC.

In July, a federal judge threw out a lawsuit brought by Nina Jankowicz, the former head of the since-disbanded federal Disinformation Governance Board. Jankowicz had alleged that she had received online attacks and threats of violence after commentators on Fox criticized the board. U.S. District Judge Colm Connolly, a Trump appointee, found that 36 of 37 of the alleged defamatory statements were about the board and not Jankowicz herself.

“Following the dismissals of the Jankowicz, Bobulinski, and now Epps cases, Fox News is pleased with these back-to-back decisions from federal courts preserving the press freedoms of the First Amendment,” a Fox spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Law&Crime.

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