Smartmatic: OAN Engaged in Potentially Criminal Activities with Trump Attorney Sidney Powell

The MAGA media confederation has suffered monumental losses lately. Particularly harsh was the 3/4 of a billion dollar judgment against Fox News for defaming Dominion Voting Systems. But that was just the beginning. Fox News, Newsmax, and One America News (OAN) remain at risk in several other pending lawsuits related to their promulgation of Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged and stolen” from him.

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Among the pending lawsuits is one by the voting software company, Smartmatic, against OAN. The Trump-fluffing propaganda outlet virulently attacked the company, charging falsely that they deliberately developed their software so that it could be hacked by nefarious Democratic operatives to switch votes from Trump to Joe Biden. Even though they knew that it wasn’t true.

SEE THIS: WATCH: OAN Concedes that ‘There Was No Widespread Voter Fraud’ to Settle Defamation Lawsuit

Now there is further evidence of the conspiracy concocted by OAN and the Trump legal team. A new court filing by Smartmatic reveals that its president, Charles Herring, engaged in a suspicious email exchange with Trump attorney, Sidney Powell. As reported by CNN

“In the wake of the 2020 election, the president of the far-right network One America News sent a potentially explosive email to former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell, with a spreadsheet claiming to contain passwords of employees from the voting technology company Smartmatic, according to court filings. […]

“Lawyers from Smartmatic told a federal judge that the email, and the attached spreadsheet, suggest OAN executives ‘may have engaged in criminal activities’ because they ‘appear to have violated state and federal laws regarding data privacy.'”

This allegation appears to affirm the unsavory relationship between OAN and the Trump campaign clan. It’s a relationship that also includes, Christina Bobb, an attorney who worked for both Trump and as a correspondent for OAN. As part of her duties for Trump she signed off on the confirmation to the FBI that all of the materials, including classified documents, that Trump had improperly taken to Mar-a-Lago had been accounted for and returned. That was not true.

SEE ALSO: Trump’s TV Lawyer Keeps Contradicting His (Variable) Excuses for Hoarding Classified Materials

Now the bonds between Trump and OAN have been drawn even tighter. If the president of the company was conspiring with the Trump legal team to gain access to Smartmatic machines, or the accounts of their employees, or to disseminate the means of that access, they are potentially liable for criminal charges.

That will eventually come out when this case goes to trial, if it goes to trial. OAN has already settled with two poll workers who sued them for defamation. And they have tried to distance themselves from the flagrant lies perpetrated by obsessive election denier, Mike Lindell of MyPillow fame. But any settlement is likely to bankrupt them.

OAN has far fewer resources than Fox News. Who, by the way, are also facing a lawsuit by Smartmatic. So with the upcoming litigation involving Smartmatic, and Trump’s multiple indictments, there are some interesting times ahead for Trump and his purveyors of propaganda. Stay tuned.

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With Lawsuits, Lost Hosts, and Lying Pundits, the Future of Fox News Has Never Been Weaker

For the past week the biggest story in media has been the firing of Tucker Carlson by Fox News. While that was indeed a newsworthy event, there are collateral consequences that are being ignored that will eventually have an even more profound impact on both politics and media.

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Carlson fans are actually celebrating his expulsion from Fox News and insisting that it will only make him more influential and powerful as an advocate for the neo-fascist agenda for which he has been the mainstream media’s most prominent spokesman. They foolishly believe that the number of times his post-termination video was viewed on Twitter is proof that he, as an individual, has greater clout than Rupert Murdoch’s multibillion dollar media conglomerate. But they might want to check with Murdoch before popping those champagne corks.

RELATED: Fox News Has Muzzled Talker Tucker Carlson, as Seen in His Hysterical Post-Termination Video

In the real world, Carlson can look forward to precisely the same political celebrity status that Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck have achieved since they were fired by Fox News (i.e. pathetic has-beens). There is a long trail of road kill lining the highway of sacked media stars.

However, the future doesn’t look any better for Fox News. They will surely survive the loss of a loser like Carlson, just as they did O’Reilly and Beck. In fact, they will probably find a replacement who surpasses Carlson’s capacity for crackpot conservatism. But that doesn’t mean that Fox News will have a clear path ahead.

In addition to the Carlson conundrum, Fox News also was just forced to pay 3/4 of a billion dollars to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems. Another voting technology company, Smartmatic, is next in line with a similar lawsuit. That case is already shaping up as a major problem for Fox News.

SEE THIS: Judge in Smartmatic Defamation Lawsuit Orders Fox News to Turn Over ‘Missing’ Documents

What’s more, all of these ill winds for Fox are blowing while they are in negotiations to renew their cable carriage contracts. They presently receive one of the highest carriage fees in the business. But are cable companies going to be anxious to continue paying a premium for a network that is firing their top rated hosts, being sued for defamation, getting exposed as liars, and having to spend their money on court settlements rather than programming.

Furthermore, Fox’s ratings have suffered steep declines since Carlson’s banishment. his former timeslot has lost 50% of its audience in just four days. It’s getting beat by MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes.” And the abutting programs are also losing viewers.

Advertisers have already checked out. Most major advertisers refused to be associated with the repulsive content that Carlson spewed. Hate speech, bigotry, and pro-Putin, anti-American totalitarianism doesn’t sell Campbell’s Soup or Ford Trucks. Carlson’s show was being almost solely supported by Mike Lindell’s MyPillow ads. And even that has been a rocky relationship.

SEE THIS: UH-OH: Tucker Carlson’s Biggest Advertiser – MyPillow – Pulls All of its Ads From Fox News

Fox News has tried to pretend that this advertiser exodus hasn’t affected their bottom line. They claim that advertisers who didn’t want their ads on Carlson’s show were moved to other shows. But there is no way that an advertiser is going to pay the same rate for some other, lower rated program, as they would have for Carlson. So Fox was obviously lying about not losing any revenue. And that was recently affirmed by none other than Rupert Murdoch’s own Wall Street Journal (as reported by Media Matters).

The confluence of lawsuit payouts. lost revenue, fired hosts, and cable carriage fee downgrades, is going to make the next few months particularly difficult for Fox News. Add to that the animosity of their former fans who are vowing to boycott the network because they believe it has now joined the radical, leftist, Soros-backed, commie, deep state, cabal that is beholden to fake President Biden, and what you have is a convergence of catastrophe. Can Fox News weather this storm? Stay tuned.

UPDATE…

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Judge in Smartmatic Defamation Lawsuit Orders Fox News to Turn Over ‘Missing’ Documents

One week ago Fox News settled a $1.6 billion dollar defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for 3/4 of a billion dollars. Fox News had falsely reported that Dominion’s voting machines were used in a conspiracy to flip votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden.

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The settlement was the largest of its kind in history. It was a clear victory for Dominion, whose pre-trial discovery uncovered and made public unambiguous evidence of Fox News executives and hosts blatantly lying on the air, while acknowledging the truth – that there was no evidence of any election fraud – to one another in private, internal communications.

RELATED: The Fox News 3/4 Billion Dollar Dominion Defamation Settlement is Also a Judgment Against Trump

Fox News is already suffering the consequences of their dishonesty. The network had already fired hosts Lou Dobbs and Dan Bongino due to the Dominion fallout. And there are likely more pink slips to be distributed in the coming weeks and months as Fox tries to slow-roll their efforts to punish scapegoats for the offenses that were part and parcel of Fox’s editorial depravity. But none will be more painful for Fox than their announcement that Tucker Carlson was terminated, and that last Friday was his last show.

SEE THIS: A Post-Mortem on Tucker Carlson Following His Unusually Abrupt Departure From Fox News

However, if Fox News thought that these concessions would put an end to their legal troubles, they were sorely mistaken. On the heels of the settled Dominion case, Fox will now have to confront essentially the same allegations of defamation from another voting technology company, Smartmatic.

Fox News had aired numerous false reports that Smartmatic was founded in Venezuela to steal elections for Hugo Chavez. They further lied that Smartmatic’s software flipped votes from Trump to Biden and that it transmitted ballots to foreign countries where they would be counted by operatives beholden to Biden and Democrats. It’s that sort of crackpot conspiracy theorizing that this case a slam dunk for Smartmatic. And there is already news on that front that is going to ruin Fox’s day…

“Fox News has agreed to give voting technology company Smartmatic additional documents about Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch and other senior corporate executives. Smartmatic is suing the right-wing network for $2.7 billion over its airing of 2020 election lies.

“The agreement was announced Wednesday at a court hearing in Manhattan. New York Supreme Court Judge David Cohen scheduled the hearing after Smartmatic raised concerns about whether Fox was complying with its pretrial obligations to turn over relevant evidence.”

Smartmatic lawyers told the judge that they “noticed obvious gaps” among the records that Fox News had already provided during the discovery process. They had good reason to suspect that Fox was being less than honest with their required document production. Fox did the same thing in the Dominion case, for which they were reprimanded by that judge in blunt terms…

“The judge presiding over [the Dominion] defamation case against Fox News admonished its attorneys Wednesday for potentially withholding evidence and said he is inclined to order an independent review by a special master that could lead to sanctions.” […]

“The judge expressed anger and frustration during a pretrial hearing after learning that Fox only recently turned over recordings of Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo [and] had withheld critical information about the role company founder Rupert Murdoch, who is chairman of Fox Corp., played at Fox News. […] Fox also did not reveal the recordings made by [Abby Grossberg] a former producer for Bartiromo.”

It’s clear that Fox News cannot be trusted to follow the law and meet their obligations required by it. Smartmatic will need to continue being vigilant and hold Fox accountable when they attempt to deceive the court. As will other plaintiffs who are lining up to sue Fox, including Abby Grossberg, the former Fox News producer for Tucker Carlson and Maria Bartiromo who claims that she was coerced to falsify testimony in the Dominion case; and Fox Corp shareholders, who are exploring legal options to hold Fox News directors and executives accountable for losses due to their malfeasance.

At this point, the only people who trust Fox are their glassy-eyed viewers, who believe everything they see on the network, even after learning that they’ve been lied to. Although even some of them are losing faith now that Fox has fired their white nationalist prophet, Tucker Carlson.

RELATED: IT’S A CULT: Most Fox News Viewers Are Still Loyal After Dominion Lawsuit Discloses Their Lies

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Fox Nation vs. Reality:
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