WASHINGTON, DC- In the middle of August, Newsmax, a cable news company, announced that it had settled a lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, which included a defamation lawsuit Dominion filed in Delaware Superior Court in 2021.
The suit was filed in Delaware, a favorable location for Dominion compared to either Denver, where it is based, or Florida, where Newsmax is now headquartered.
At the time of the suit, unfortunately for Newsmax, it was headquartered in the leftist haven of Delaware.
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Newsmax stated that there was a mutual agreement between the two parties for a payment of $67 million.
Newsmax will pay out the settlement in installments spanning three years, which Newsmax expects will be funded through revenues.
In the original suit, Dominion, which was at the center of 2020 election fraud allegations, sought $1.6 billion in damages, alleging that statements made during Newsmax’s 2020 presidential election coverage were “defamatory.”
Newsmax, however, claimed their reporting was not inflammatory and that its coverage fell within “accepted journalistic standards.”
“Newsmax believed it was critically important for the American people to hear both sides of the election disputes that arose in 2020,” the Company wrote in its statement. “We stand by our coverage as fair, balanced, and conducted within professional standards of journalism.”
The 2020 election was marked by a number of bizarre occurrences, including midnight ballot dumps in swing states, a convenient water leak in Georgia, and vote totals for Joe Biden that far surpassed election results even for the Messiah Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.
There were also many changes in how elections were conducted, with the common excuse being the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to mass mail-in voting, which some said was ripe for abuse.
Newsmax felt that it would not get a fair shot before Judge Eric Davis in the Delaware Court, believing that Newsmax would not be able to “present standard libel defenses to a jury,” despite having complete confidence in its reporting.
According to the Delaware Courts website, Davis was appointed as President Judge by Democratic Delaware Gov. Matt Meyers on April 17, 2025. He was initially appointed to the bench in December 2012 by Gov. Jack Markell.
Davis has a history of ruling against conservative outlets, including Fox News in that lawsuit also filed by Dominion, where he was the presiding judge. At that time, Fox’s chief legal officer criticized Davis for his actions and rulings.
“From the very beginning, Judge Davis ruled in ways that strongly favored the plaintiffs and limited Newsmax’s ability to defend itself,” Newsmax stated.
The outlet cited several examples to back up its claims of bias, including:
- Presumption of guilt: Davis ruled early in the case that Newsmax had committed defamation “per se” against Dominion in each of the 19 alleged statements, which Newsmax said deprived the company of being able “to present a full defense to the serious claims made before a jury, which ordinarily decides upon such matters.
- Suppression of critical context: Davis indicated he would not allow the jury to hear that Fox News had already paid Dominion $787 million in a settlement, which Newsmax alleged was essential in order for the jury to evaluate damages and for them to understand Dominion was more than adequately compensated for any alleged harm.
- Procedural irregularities: “Dominion initially sued Newsmax’s parent company rather than its broadcasting subsidiary, Newsmax Broadcasting LLC.” Davis refused to dismiss the suit and instead “simply added the subsidiary and then, without notice or due process to Newsmax Broadcasting, he entered partial summary judgment against the subsidiary–even before it was served with a complaint in the lawsuit.”
- Excessive and intrusive discovery: Davis allowed Dominion to go through “extensive communications, including personal emails, cell text messages, and other documents of reporters and company executives” that had nothing to do with the issues being examined in the case.
Based on the above, Newsmax didn’t believe it would receive a fair trial, as Davis had habitually denied the company due process. With all of that hanging over its head, Newsmax felt it had no other choice but to settle the case.
“The Delaware Court under Judge Davis effectively enforced a confiscation of our property because our reporting was not always sympathetic to Joe Biden,” Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy said.
“The actions taken against Newsmax, and earlier against Fox News, represent a direct attack on free speech and a free press,” Ruddy continued.
During the 2020 election cycle, several people alleged that Dominion Voting Systems machines were at least partially responsible for the questionable election results, including former Trump attorney Sidney Powell, Trump adviser and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.
Newsmax alleged that Davis’ rulings “threaten the Company’s own rights but also broader constitutional freedoms that will impact many other companies and individuals in the future.”
“The judiciary’s willingness to punish news organizations for reporting on matters of urgent national debate undermines the role fo the press in a free society,” Newsmax said.
In light of the lawsuit and the apparent bias of Judge Davis, Newsmax recommends Delaware-incorporated businesses to leave the state, as it did so to Florida, noting that “businesses should re-domicile in jurisdictions that still believe in the rule of law and remain committed to protecting constitutional freedoms for all Americans.”
Despite the questionable conduct of Davis, Newsmax stated that settling the lawsuit allows the company to “move forward with clarity and renewed focus.”
Newsmax, which recently went public, is confident that revenues over the next three years will cover the full cost of the suit.
“With these matters resolved, Newsmax is positioned to continue its mission: delivering accurate reporting, fostering vigorous debate, and ensuring Americans have access to diverse viewpoints,” Newsmax said in their release.
‘At a time when public trust in media is at historic lows, our commitment to balanced reporting, coverage of critical issues facing Americans, and open dialogue has never been more important.”
Despite claims that their machines were secure, J. Alex Halderman, a professor of computer science and engineering, discovered vulnerabilities in Dominion's equipment.
In 2020, in the state of Georgia, Halderman discovered that a hacker could change votes encoded in a barcode of voter selections, even if they didn’t have physical access to the machines. Despite that, the machines were not scheduled to be updated until after the 2024 election.
In Michigan in 202, Antrim County published incorrect vote totals in their initial counts, which were later corrected.
Halderman found that human error and “insufficient software guardrails led to an incorrect ballot scanner configuration, producing the erroneous results.” Halderman developed software to check the system’s configuration which checks the system’s configuration.
Finally, while elections are supposed to be confidential, Halderman’s team found a vulnerability in some Dominion ballot scanners “that could un-shuffle the ballot information and reveal who cast what votes.” In response, Dominion developed a software patch to fix the issue.
Why is it that some countries can use paper ballots and have the results the same day, while in the United States, election results in primarily swing states take days, or sometimes weeks, to count?
The only way to avoid issues such as those raised by Newsmax is to have a valid ID to vote and use paper ballots that are numbered.
Current systems leave numerous areas vulnerable to abuse. If you need an ID to purchase alcohol, take out a loan, borrow a library book, or fly on an airliner, you should need one to carry out the most essential duty we as Americans have.
Voting.
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