Raw Story

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.

The reality of Donald Trump's immigration crackdown played out in a Manhattan courtroom Wednesday when a Honduran mother was forced to raise her right hand and swear an oath while breastfeeding her eight-month-old daughter—all while masked FBI agents lurked in the hallways.

The Daily Beast's Michael Daly told how Valeria Lopez, whom the Trump administration brands part of an "invading horde," steadied baby Mia against her breast as she complied with Judge John Siemietkowski's request.

Daly sarcastically called it Trump's vision of America's greatest threat: a nursing mother seeking asylum with her husband Edison and their two well-behaved children, 11-year-old Alan and 7-year-old Iker.

Portraits of a glowering Trump, resembling his 2023 mugshot, watched over proceedings, Daly wrote.

While actual criminals on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list—gang leaders, drug kingpins, terrorists—remain free, agents have been reassigned to help Trump "scoop up 3,000 undocumented immigrants a day," Daly wrote.

Their strategy is to position "snatch teams" of masked agents outside immigration courtrooms, the writer stated. When asylum seekers dutifully appear for hearings, the government dismisses their cases, strips their interim protection, and agents immediately pounce. It's "the equivalent of going fishing in an aquarium," Daly wrote.

At least 18 agents in three groups stalked the courthouse corridors this week, Daly saw. On Tuesday, they handcuffed New York City Comptroller Brad Lander when he demanded to see a judicial warrant. The viral video of that confrontation prompted visits from Governor Kathy Hochul and Congressional Representatives Dan Goldman and Jerry Nadler.

Siemietkowski provided a stark contrast to the administration's dehumanization, Daly remarked. Marveling at the Lopez children's behavior, he told them: "I want to know your secret for raising such angels." He gave the boys drawing pads, joking, "Who needs Lion King or Wicked when you can come to Courtroom 16?"

When they showed their artwork, he held the drawings up for all to see, leading applause as he declared them "our own Picassos!" He then warned the family about the agents waiting outside: "You may see somebody you know arrested. You yourself may be arrested."

The Lopez family's next hearing isn't until June 2026—part of a crushing 3.5 million-case national backlog.

As they departed Wednesday, 11-year-old Alan offered his assessment of America: "I love school!" Seven-year-old Iker gave a thumbs-up. Only baby Mia, born on U.S. soil, has guaranteed protection from Trump's deportation machine.

This is Trump's "invasion," Daly concluded — a breastfeeding mother, children making drawings for a kind judge, and a family desperately seeking safety while armed agents hunt them like prey.

Mike Huckabee shared a text message he sent urging president Donald Trump to strike Iran, and an Israeli journalist and author said the ambassador's "Bible-thumping, messianic rhetoric" revealed the Christian right's dark ambitions.

Trump's ambassador to Israel called on Trump to join military operations against Iran, saying he was spared from an assassin's bullet by God to be the “most consequential President in a century — maybe ever," and Haaretz columnist Etan Nechin warned that Huckabee and other "Christian Zionists" are calling for war to usher in what they believe will be the end times.

"Huckabee believes deeply in Dispensationalist theology, which holds that modern Israel fulfills biblical prophecy and must be supported until the end of days. He's also not shy about it," Nechin wrote. "In April, standing atop the ancient walls of Jerusalem, the ambassador declared: 'We have the opportunity to be representatives not only of our government, but also representatives of Jesus Christ.'"

"[The ambassador's] text to Trump reads less like strategic counsel and more like the culmination of decades of evangelical doomsday politics toward Israel and the messianic turn of Israeli politics itself," Nechin added.

Israel has quickly intensified its assault on Iran and its officials are openly talking about regime change in Tehran, and Nechin warned that political leadership in both Jerusalem and Washington has fallen into the grips of religious extremism.

"The messianic language claiming to defend democracy heard from both Israeli and American politicians reveals a dangerous irony: They're not opposing theocracy, they just oppose the Islamic kind," Nechin wrote. "They just cloak their own religious fanaticism in terms like 'Judeo-Christian values' and 'the West.'"

Jewish religious Zionists have fused religion and nationalism, and they've come to see Israel as a vessel for redemption, Nechin argued, and they share Huckabee's apparent view that the Al-Aqsa must be destroyed so a third temple can be built, which they believe will usher in the Messiah.

"What's plain in the ambassador's text is this: the U.S. never was an honest broker, and was never meant to be," Nechin wrote. "It is, increasingly, the political wing of a Christian apocalyptic vision with Israel at its center."

"This war is a holy battleground," the columnist added, "and the people of Israel and Iran are a small price to pay for the kingdom of heaven on earth."

President Donald Trump raged at Iran again on Monday afternoon for failing to sign a "deal" he said he told the country to sign.

Trump took to his Truth Social platform on Monday to attack the country, which has seen at least 224 people killed — the vast majority reportedly civilians — since Israel began its airstrikes late last week. More than 1,400 people have been injured in the country, which has also seen significant damage to civilian infrastructure, including hospitals.

"Iran should have signed the 'deal' I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life," Trump wrote.

He repeated his declaration that the country cannot have a nuclear weapon.

"I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!" Trump wrote.

His comments come as Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi wrote on X, "If President Trump is genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential."

"Israel must halt its aggression, and absent a total cessation of military aggression against us, our responses will continue. It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu," said Araqchi.

Israel began its surprise strikes Friday, killing nearly all of the top echelon of Iran's military commanders and its top nuclear scientists. Israel has said it controls Iran's airspace and plans to step up its attacks in coming days.

About two dozen people have been killed in Israel as a result of Iran's missile attacks, all civilians.

Supporters of President Donald Trump have flown into conniptions over Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s creation of a task force to study slavery reparations.

Johnson, a progressive mayor whose tenure has been marked with controversy, issued a news release announcing his decision this week, ahead of the observance of Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating when the final slaves held in Texas were notified of emancipation.

"This Task Force is an example of the Administration’s dedication to co-governance, and in partnership with members of the Aldermanic Black Caucus, the Mayor’s offices of Equity and Racial Justice and Business, Economic and Neighborhood Development, and other key City departments, will conduct a comprehensive study and examination of all policies that have harmed Black Chicagoans from the slavery era to present day and make a series of recommendations that will serve as appropriate remedies," said the mayor's news release.

His announcement enraged the MAGA sphere on X.

"JUST IN: Democrat Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is promoting a race-based government funding program in honor of Juneteenth. This is not legal," wrote far-right influencer Chaya "LibsOfTikTok" Raichik, tagging the Justice Department and Trump's civil rights chief Harmeet Dhillon.

"JUST IN: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson just announced he will be handing race-based grants ONLY to blacks for 'slavery reparations,'" wrote far-right podcaster Nick Sortor. "This is straight up RACISM! Trump’s DOJ should shut this down NOW!"

"POS Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has announced he will be handing out race based grants to Blacks for reparations," wrote influencer "Gunther Eagleman." "This is blatant racism."

"The Juneteenth flag was unfurled today in Chicago, and @ChicagosMayor's racism was on full display," wrote "Chicago Contrarian." "Reparations and slavery featured prominently in his address. Johnson announced a $4M grant, based on race only, to blacks as a form of reparations. Johnson is a disgrace."

A former Coast Guard lieutenant and sharpshooter has been accused in federal court of threatening to assassinate President Donald Trump, writing multiple times on social media that he'd be "willing to pitch in $100 for a contract."

Peter Stinson, of Oakton, Virginia, repeatedly threatened to kill Trump in social media posts, court documents filed in a Virginia federal court alleged Monday. The documents were shared on X by CBS News Justice Correspondent Scott MacFarlane.

An FBI affidavit said Stinson posted hundreds of violent, graphic, and escalating threats on the platforms X, Bluesky, Reddit, and Instagram for five years beginning in 2020. Stinson self-identified member of Antifa with a background in national security and emergency operations.

In April 2020, investigators said he posted an explicit call to crowdfund an assassination attempt, writing: “I’d be willing to pitch in $100 for a contract. Who wants to join me? We could solve the solvable part of this problem in a crack.”

He made a similar comment in February 2025, court documents alleged, writing on Bluesky: "Can we crowd source a contract hit?”

The latter post came a day after Stinson posted a violent fantasy on the same platform he "would twist the knife after sliding it into his fatty flesh.”

And in January of this year, Stinson said, “Somebody needs to do it. Somebody with the skills to do it right. Somebody with the experience. Somebody with the right tools.”

Separately, Stinson has said he believes that someone who "kills the President to save the country has broken no laws."

A judge ordered Stinson to remain held in jail pending the outcome of a hearing Wednesday, MacFarlane reported.

Court documents noted that Stinson was a Coast Guard officer from 1988 to 2021, achieving the rank of lieutenant. He received firearms training and was awarded sharpshooter ribbons for both pistol and rifle. He also received extensive training in operations planning and was an instructor for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Incident Command Systems, courses taught to prepare for and respond to disasters and emergencies.

Additionally, Stinson received a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College, court documents said.

The allegations come after authorities said Vance Boelter, 57, assassinated Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman. Police arrested Boelter following a manhunt. He is also accused of shooting and wounding state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, at their home.

It also comes after two assassination plots against Trump last year, including one over the summer in which a bullet grazed his ear.