Newsmax and OANN sued by the manufacturer of voting machines

Election material maker targeted by false conspiracy theories around the 2020 election is suing Newsmax and the owner of One American News Network (OANN), alleging that the media have been spreading a campaign of deliberate disinformation for profit.

Dominion Voting Systems is seeking approximately $ 1.6 billion in defamation damages from each of the two media outlets, both of which have adopted various electoral conspiracy theories claiming then President Donald Trump should have won the election from 2020.

Dominion is also suing Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, a prominent Trump supporter and electoral conspiracy theorist, for $ 1.6 billion.

The lawsuits, each over 100 pages long, detail many falsehoods and absurd claims about Dominion and the 2020 election.

“Newsmax has helped create and cultivate an alternate reality where the top is down, pigs have wings and Dominion has engaged in a colossal fraud to steal the presidency from Donald Trump by rigging the vote,” said the Dominion lawyers in a lawsuit.

One “expert mathematician” interviewed about OANN was actually an installer at a Long Island swing construction company, Dominion claims.

The lawsuits build on Dominion’s previous legal efforts to punish the media and individuals who spread the widely debunked theories. Dominion has previously sued Fox News, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, and attorneys Sydney Powell and Rudy Giuliani over similar allegations. These lawsuits are ongoing.

State and federal election officials and security experts have repeatedly attested that the 2020 presidential election is safe and secure, and numerous audits have found no substantiated anomalies that would affect election results. But Trump supporters have pushed many unsubstantiated theories as to why he actually won the election, often claiming that Dominion’s equipment was involved in various schemes to change the vote count.

“This barrage of lies from the accused and others has caused – and continues to cause – serious damage to our business, our customers and our employees,” Dominion CEO John Poulos said in a statement. sent by email. “We have no choice but to seek to hold those responsible to account.”

Representatives for Newsmax, OANN and Byrne did not respond to the request for comment.

Newsmax and OANN have emerged as some of Trump’s strongest supporters during his administration, sometimes even in the Fox News audience. Not much has changed after his electoral defeat, with both channels following Trump’s plot rabbit holes that quickly collapsed in US courts.

Faced with the prospect of legal action, the media began to change programming and publish warnings.

In April, Newsmax posted an apology and retraction on its website after settling a lawsuit with Dominion employee Eric Coomer. These excuses now appear to be removed from the site. In February, OANN issued a 90-second warning ahead of a three-hour Lindell film featuring a host of electoral conspiracy theories.