Voting machine company Smartmatic and OANN settle defamation suit

Voting machine company Smartmatic has settled its defamation suit against One America News Network out of court, according to a court filing Tuesday.

The details of the settlement were not disclosed in the filing, but OANN parent company Herring Networks and Smartmatic each agreed to pay their own attorney fees and expenses, according to the court filing. In an email, Smartmatic attorney Erik Connolly confirmed the "confidential settlement."

Smartmatic, a voting machine company used only by Los Angeles county in the 2020 election, filed a spate of lawsuits in 2021 alleging it was defamed by conservative media networks, personalities and allies of former President Donald Trump.

Herring Networks also faces a lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, a popular voting machine company that made headlines for securing a massive $787.5 million settlement last year from Fox News in a defamation claim. Dominion's case against Fox News dragged reams of evidence and testimony into the public sphere, revealing that Trump’s media allies did not believe the remarkably dubious evidence behind the the president’s stolen election claims.

At least eight other defamation cases from the voting machine companies are working their way through the judicial system this year, too.

Smartmatic's lawsuit against Newsmax is scheduled to go to trial in September, while its trial on the voting machine company's case against MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, which could have begun as early as this month, was recently rescheduled to January. The company's suit against Fox News in New York remains in discovery as that network also pursues a counterclaim against Smartmatic.

Dominion's case against Newsmax has been delayed by discovery fights and is not expected to