Dozens of White Supremacists Arrested in Idaho Had Planned to Riot

The overwhelming majority of the lawsuit against Fox News by Smartmatic has been filed under seal, leaving little information available for the public to follow. That changed with a filing this week, however.

Fox News filed a motion for summary judgment, which is a request for the court to resolve a lawsuit without a trial. In its response, Smartmatic emphatically said no.

In the wake of President Donald Trump's 2020 election loss, Fox hosts and guests similarly attacked Dominion Voting Systems, leading to a lawsuit from the company. After years of negotiations, both parties agreed to settle in 2023 for $787.5 million and an acknowledgment "the Court's rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false."

Smartmatic indicated at the time that it would not be following suit.

The court filing submitted on Wednesday alleges "widespread damage" and "unprecedented scale of defamation," calling the comments about the company "deliberate deception" and "Targeted Character Assassination."

However, it was in the final section that Smartmatic made it clear it was in it for the long haul.

"But, to be fair, Fox got one thing right in their motion. Smartmatic is not Dominion. Smartmatic is an order of magnitude bigger in almost every metric, starting with historical profits. Smartmatic pioneered voting systems with verified paper trails, conducted the first fully automated nationwide elections, and provided Europe’s first fully automated, verifiable voting experience. Smartmatic provided the world’s largest and longest operating online voting system, delivered the first blockchain-powered online vote, and supplied voting machines for the largest election contract in U.S. history," the documents says.

The filing cites endorsements from former presidents and touts its transparency and "perfect record. Smartmatic was in 2020 the largest and most successful voting company in the world."

"Fox picked the wrong company to cast as its villain," the filing says.

"Prior to the Campaign, Smartmatic was a multi-billion-dollar enterprise with global reach, a track record of success in the world’s most challenging election environments, and a foolproof defense to any claim of rigging the 2020 election (it operated only in LA County)," it continues. "In 2020, Fox may not have appreciated that it was attacking a company that, in fact, embodied the American dream—growing from obscurity to winner of the largest election contracts in the world. Fox now knows. That is why its motion desperately attempts to once again vilify Smartmatic—deploying the classic abuser’s tactic of blaming the victim. But Fox’s claims about Smartmatic remain lies; and, ultimately, the jury will determine the price Fox must pay for its deliberate destruction of an innocent company."

Smartmatic issued a press release with the filing saying internal communications at Fox "reveal that they knew there was no credible evidence of Smartmatic participating in election fraud, yet they deliberately chose to promote false narratives against the company anyway. These communications show contempt against their viewers, the country and the President."

Among the arguments Fox has presented is that they have a First Amendment right to the free press.

“This is not a case about freedom of the press,” said external legal counsel Erik Connolly, said for Smartmatic. “This is about a media empire choosing to lie for ratings and profit, no matter the consequences and no matter the damage done.”

Fox's first motion, filed in May, attacked the company further, saying that it has "ongoing reputational problems," which gives credence to its claims on air about the company, ABC News reported.

"In the wake of the hotly contested 2020 Presidential Election, Fox News hosts fairly and accurately reported on remarkable and newsworthy allegations that the President and his lawyers were making about election integrity during the short interval between Election Day and the date the results were certified, while court challenges were playing out around the country," the filing from the network said.

Fox said that Smartmatic sees the networks as a "litigation lottery ticket in Fox News's coverage of the 2020 election."

The lawsuit was first filed in 2021 and included other defendants.

See the court filing below.

CNN's Tom Foreman called new details coming out about the night Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his wife, Yvette, were shot and seriously wounded during an alleged political attack, "absolutely remarkable."

Fifty-seven-year-old Vance Boelter was arrested and charged with shooting the Hoffmans, and killing Speaker Emerita of the MN House Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband, Mark.

Federal investigators revealed this week that the suspect visited the homes of two other legislators on the same day.

"Unbelievable the details we're getting out of the hospital from these folks here. It really is remarkable," Foreman exclaimed.

"What they are saying now is that they went to their door at two in the morning. They hear this pounding on the door. They say they went to the door with their adult daughter, Hope, who was with them also," Foreman recounted.

"They saw, according to them, this gunman at the door who shot John Hoffman nine times. His wife Yvette, was pushing the gunman out the door as he shot her eight times. She got him out the door. The daughter, Hope, locked the door and called 911 and got help to the house. Remarkable that these people survived this and made it through their serious conditions."

Foreman remarked that "the fact that this family was able to do that at two in the morning out of a dead sleep, absolutely remarkable."

Foreman read from a statement the Hoffmans released Thursday saying, "We are grappling with the reality that we live in a world where public service carries such risks as being targeted because someone disagrees with you or doesn't like what you stand for as a society, as a nation, as a community, we must work together to return to a level of civility that allows us all to live peacefully. The future for our children depends on that."

Yvette Hoffman was released from the hospital Thursday while her husband continues to be treated for his injuries.

Watch the clip below via CNN or click the link here.