Newsmax was asked by media why Smartmatic claims of damages against Newsmax have been reduced by over a billion dollars.
Answer:
On the eve of its trial of Newsmax, Smartmatic has voluntarily reduced its claim for damages by over a billion dollars because it seeks to hide from the jury key evidence concerning allegations of criminal activities by its executives.
The Delaware Court has so far approved keeping this critical evidence from the jury, provided that Smartmatic does not argue that it lost any business opportunities after Dec. 31, 2023, due to Newsmax reporting.
On Aug. 8 of this year, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted three top Smartmatic executives, including its then president and co-founder Roger A. Piñate, on multiple federal criminal charges including money laundering and bribery in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Previous court filings alleged the executives conspired to bribe a Philippines election official approximately $4 million to obtain voting machine and service contracts totaling nearly $200 million.
On Aug. 16, 2024, eight days after the indictment, Smartmatic filed a motion with the Delaware Court to exclude the indictment information from the evidence to be provided to the jury — if they, Smartmatic, agreed to cut off claimed damages against Newsmax.
The Court agreed with Smartmatic to exclude the DOJ indictments from the jury if they cut off damages claimed against Newsmax as of Dec. 31, 2023, instead of until 2035 as Smartmatic initially alleged. This is why Smartmatic's damages claim has been reduced by a billion dollars.
Newsmax had objected to the Court's ruling arguing that the federal indictments of Roger Piñate and other senior Smartmatic executives should not be excluded from any jury decision on the grounds that they are directly relevant to the case.
First, Smartmatic's activities and alleged misdeeds in the Philippines became a public issue during the very same time period for which Smartmatic seeks damages from Newsmax for supposedly defaming it in November and December 2020.
Also, and critically, the DOJ indictment of Smartmatic executives directly impacts the credibility of key Smartmatic personnel who are expected to testify at trial, including Roger Piñate.
These Smartmatic personnel spent months trying to hide evidence of the investigation and likelihood of an indictment from both Newsmax and the Court.
Newsmax believes these are critical facts the jury should aware of in making its decisions relating to this case.
Please note that the Court has already ruled that Newsmax never engaged in "express malice," finding that there was "no evidence that Newsmax acted with evil intent towards Smartmatic."
Specifically, the Court found there was no evidence of any campaign targeting Smartmatic or that Newsmax had any intent to harm the company.
The Court also ruled on Monday that Smartmatic is not entitled to punitive damages in the case.
Newsmax has claimed in its filings that Smartmatic has not provided a single piece of evidence that it lost any business anywhere in the world as a result of Newsmax's coverage.
Newsmax has contended that Smartmatic executives made-up claims of damages without any evidence that Newsmax caused any harm to Smartmatic.
So now, Smartmatic's damages claim have magically dropped by over $1 billion to a few hundred million dollars.
Newsmax maintains the Court and jurors should reject any claim of damages based on the lack of any evidence Smartmatic has provided.
We remain perplexed that a company with such a sordid reputation as Smartmatic can put Newsmax on trial for allegedly harming its reputation.
For more than a decade, Smartmatic served as the exclusive election vendor of the brutal Chavez/Maduro regimes which has been continuously cited for its human rights violations, including murder, torture, repression of basic freedoms and other crimes.
Considering Smartmatic's terrible reputation, this company can hardly claim Newsmax's minor coverage after the 2020 election hurt its business.
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