As if to highlight my point about strategic lawsuits taking on more importance, this week ended with another voting machine company filing a defamation suit against numerous defendants who were part of the massive distribution of lies about election fraud. The latest suit is by Smartmatic; the complaint is online here. The suit has been reported dozens of online articles.
The allegations of the 282 page complaint are detailed. Some are summarized in a February 4, 2021 Washington Post article by Jeremy Barr and Elahe Izadi. As to more suits, they reported: "Other lawsuits might be in the pipeline. Smartmatic has sent legal demand letters to Newsmax and One America News over fraud accusations made on their shows but has not yet indicated whether it will sue them. “We are taking a measured approach to pursuing our claims,” the company said."
The following example of defamation is from their article:
"Among the dozens of examples cited in the suit is a Nov. 12 episode of “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” in which Giuliani claimed that Smartmatic was founded by three Venezuelans close to former dictator Hugo Chávez “in order to fix elections.” Dobbs thanked Giuliani for being “on the case,” which the host said “has the feeling of a coverup in certain places.”
Smartmatic said in the lawsuit that the company performed work in only one county during November’s election, helping officials in Los Angeles implement a pandemic-safe voting system. The alleged smear campaign nevertheless succeeded in making Smartmatic “known by voters in the United States and abroad as a criminal that stole the 2020 U.S. election,” leading to the loss of business partners, strained client relationships and an estimated loss of more than $500 million in future profits, according to the complaint."