Fox News accuses Smartmatic executives of deleting evidence amid 2020 defamation lawsuit
In court filings Wednesday, Fox News accused Smartmatic of "brazen and purposeful" destruction of evidence amid the voting machine company's multibillion-dollar defamation case against the media company.
The filing from Fox claims that "nearly" two dozen executives and sales personnel at Smartmatic deleted data that was relevant to the damages claims the company is pursuing. This occurred, Fox claims, "either shortly before or while this case was pending."
"For many witnesses, the spoliation is pervasive and resulted in the apparent deletion of all, or nearly all, of their mobile data," the filing, which was largely redacted from public view, claims. "The destroyed text messages have left serious gaps in the record from individuals who were directly responsible for developing Smartmatic's farfetched damages story."
Smartmatic sued Fox News in 2021, claiming Fox "knowingly and intentionally" spread false claims of voting machine fraud in the wake of the 2020 election. Smartmatic is seeking $2.7 billion in damages -- a number Fox has called "outlandish."
Wednesday's filing alleges that Smartmatic's CEO "ordered" the company's president, in writing, to delete messages that were "discussing critical damages issues." The filing also claims that an executive at Smartmatic "directed his subordinates to doctor key customer records to manufacture support for the massive damages case Smartmatic had invented.'"
"And while they should have been retaining documents, key Smartmatic employees deleted their mobile messages, depriving Fox of yet more evidence undermining Smartmatic's unsupported damages claim," the filing said.
The filing from Fox News comes one week after Smartmatic accused Fox News of destroying text messages as part of the lawsuit.
Smartmatic claims those Fox executives who "deleted their texts" include founder Rupert Mudoch and chairman Lachlan Murdoch.
"The destruction was not isolated or accidental," the filing from Smartmatic, which was largely redacted, claimed. "It was extensive and willful."
In its own filing Wednesday, Fox News disputed that account, saying it "voluntarily disclosed to Smartmatic the gaps in its own production of mobile data -- all of which were inadvertent."
"There is zero evidence of any bad intent or culpability on the part of anyone at Fox to spoliate evidence or conceal anything," the filing said. "Fox undertook extensive mitigation measures to remedy the gaps and produced thousands of text messages and emails to Smartmatic."
Smartmatic attorney Erik Connolly, responding to Fox's filing Wednesday, said in a statement, "Fox continues to smear Smartmatic to distract from the truth: Fox lied following the 2020 election and has repeatedly lied to shield itself from accountability in this case. Fox’s baseless attacks are nothing more than retaliation, a deliberate effort to avoid addressing its own destruction of evidence."
