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Fox News is taking action to uncover any potential links between George Soros and a voting technology company that is suing the network for $2.7 billion over its dissemination of election rigging conspiracy theories.
These efforts are part of Fox News’ strategy, under the leadership of new CEO Lachlan Murdoch, to minimize the financial consequences of the defamation lawsuit.
In a recent court filing, attorneys for Fox News, owned by the Murdoch family, argued that Soros has been associated with Smartmatic, the company that Fox News hosts falsely claimed interfered with the presidential election, for nearly a decade. However, Smartmatic’s devices were only used in a single county in the US election.
Soros’ legal team has criticized Fox News’ request as “unduly burdensome and oppressive” and an abuse of the legal process.
This move by Fox News to obtain documents from Soros is the latest in a series of strategic moves aimed at defending itself against ongoing litigation related to its coverage of the 2020 election. Earlier this year, Fox News paid $787.5 million to settle a similar defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion, an election machine manufacturer.
In its lawsuit filed in 2021, Smartmatic accused Fox News of defamation based on statements made by Trump’s lawyers, including Sidney Powell, who mentioned “George Soros connections to this entire endeavor” on air. Fox News’ own research found no evidence of Soros’ ownership stake in the company.
Fox News’ attorneys are attempting to argue that these statements may not have been defamatory. They pointed out that Mark Malloch-Brown, the chair of Smartmatic’s parent company prior to the election, also served as a board member for the Soros-founded Open Society Foundations.
“Malloch-Brown has had a personal and business relationship with George Soros dating back to at least 2005,” stated Fox News’ lawyers. They further added that in the same year, “while Malloch-Brown was serving in the United Nations, he resided in an apartment owned by Soros in New York City.”
Rudy Giuliani indirectly referenced Malloch-Brown in one of his allegedly defamatory statements made on Fox News. In November 2020, Giuliani said, “Well, the guy who was running [Smartmatic] was one of the . . . people who is number two or three in Soros’s ‘Change the World’ organization — Open Society, right?”
A subpoena was initially issued to Soros in June, requesting documents and communications related to Smartmatic, as well as communications between Soros and his charities and Malloch-Brown regarding Smartmatic.
Soros’ attorneys argued that Smartmatic’s complaint only contains a few vague references made by Fox News personnel or guests to a supposed “connection” between Smartmatic and Soros.
“These few imprecise remarks do not justify the broad requests made of Mr. Soros,” they stated.
Both Smartmatic and Malloch-Brown did not respond to requests for comment. The Open Society Foundations and Fox News declined to comment.
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