Conservative network Newsmax agrees to pay $67M in defamation case over
bogus 2020 election claims
[August 19, 2025] By
NICHOLAS RICCARDI
DENVER (AP) — The conservative network Newsmax will pay $67 million to
settle a lawsuit accusing it of defaming a voting equipment company by
spreading lies about President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss,
according to documents filed Monday.
The settlement comes after Fox News Channel paid $787.5 million to
settle a similar lawsuit in 2023 and Newsmax paid what court papers
describe as $40 million to settle a libel lawsuit from a different
voting machine manufacturer, Smartmatic, which also was a target of
pro-Trump conspiracy theories on the network.
Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis had ruled earlier that Newsmax
did indeed defame Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems by airing false
information about the company and its equipment. But Davis left it to a
jury to eventually decide whether that was done with malice, and, if so,
how much Dominion deserved from Newsmax in damages. Newsmax and Dominion
reached the settlement before the trial could take place.
The settlement was disclosed by Newsmax in a new filing with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission. It said the deal was reached Friday.
“Newsmax believed it was critically important for the American people to
hear both sides of the election disputes that arose in 2020,” the
company said in a statement. “We stand by our coverage as fair,
balanced, and conducted within professional standards of journalism.”
A spokesperson for Dominion said the company was pleased to have settled
the lawsuit.
The disclosure of the settlement came as Trump, who lost his 2020
reelection bid to Democrat Joe Biden, vowed in a social media post
Monday to eliminate mail-in ballots and voting machines such as those
supplied by Dominion and other companies. It was unclear how the
Republican president could achieve that.
The same judge also handled the Dominion-Fox News case and made a
similar ruling that the network repeated numerous lies by Trump’s allies
about his 2020 loss despite internal communications showing Fox
officials knew the claims were bogus. At the time, Davis found it was
“CRYSTAL clear” that none of the allegations was true.
Internal correspondence from Newsmax officials likewise shows they knew
the claims were baseless.
“How long are we going to play along with election fraud?” Newsmax host
Bob Sellers said two days after the 2020 election was called for Biden,
according to internal documents revealed as part of the case.
Newsmax took pride that it was not calling the election for Biden and,
the internal documents show, saw a business opportunity in catering to
viewers who believed Trump won. Private communications that surfaced as
part of Dominion’s earlier defamation case against Fox News also
revealed how the network’s business interests intersected with decisions
it made related to coverage of Trump’s 2020 election claims.
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A display shows a Newsmax logo on the day of their IPO on the floor
at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, March 31, 2025. (AP
Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
 At Newsmax, employees repeatedly
warned against false allegations from pro-Trump guests such as
attorney Sidney Powell, according to documents in the lawsuit. In
one text, even Newsmax owner Chris Ruddy, a Trump ally, said he
found it “scary” that Trump was meeting with Powell.
Dominion was at the heart of many of the wild claims aired by guests
on Newsmax and elsewhere, who promoted a conspiracy theory involving
deceased Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez to rig the machines for
Biden. The network retracted some of the more bombastic allegations
in December 2020.
Though Trump has insisted his fraud claims are real, there’s no
evidence they were, and the lawsuits in the Fox and Newsmax cases
show how some of the president’s biggest supporters knew they were
false at the time. Trump’s then-attorney general, William Barr, said
there was no evidence of widespread fraud.
Trump and his backers lost dozens of lawsuits alleging fraud, some
before Trump-appointed judges. Numerous recounts, reviews and audits
of the election results, including some run by Republicans, turned
up no signs of significant wrongdoing or error and affirmed Biden’s
win.
After returning to office, Trump pardoned those who tried to halt
the transfer of power during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S.
Capitol and directed his Department of Justice to investigate Chris
Krebs, a former Trump cybersecurity appointee who had vouched for
the security and accuracy of the 2020 election.
As an initial trial date approached in the Dominion case earlier
this year, Trump issued an executive order attacking the law firm
that litigated it and the Fox case, Susman Godfrey. The order, part
of a series targeting law firms Trump has tussled with, cited Susman
Godfrey’s work on elections and said the government would not do
business with any of its clients or permit any of its staff in
federal buildings.
A federal judge put that action on hold, saying the framers would
view it as “a shocking abuse of power. ”
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