Smartmatic indicted in foreign bribery case, which could jeopardize its prosecution of Fox News and Rudy Giuliani

Washington
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The Justice Department on Thursday filed foreign bribery charges against Smartmatic, the voting technology company that is suing Fox News and other pro-Trump figures for defamation for their promotion of 2020 election lies.

The corruption and money laundering charges against Smartmatic stem from an existing case filed last year against some of its current and former executives, including its founder.

The indictment relates to an alleged $1 million bribe paid to the Philippines’ top election official to secure lucrative contracts for that country’s 2016 elections. The indictment does not include any allegations of election fraud or election rigging against Smartmatic.

The news could be catastrophic for Smartmatic, potentially weakening its influence in 2020 election-related defamation lawsuits against Fox News host-turned-U.S. attorney. Jeanine Pirroex-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and CEO of MyPillow Mike Lindell.

These accusations could weaken Smartmatic’s arguments that its reputation has been tarnished solely by these pro-Trump figures and their outright lies about the 2020 election.

“It’s pretty much the same thing. A photocopy of the previous bogus indictment,” Smartmatic said in a statement Thursday, denying any wrongdoing and vowing to fight the case.

The company added: “We believe the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida was misled and politically influenced by powerful interests, despite our extensive cooperation with the government. This is once again targeted, political, and unfair.”

It is unclear what Smartmatic refers to. President Donald Trump has successfully pushed in recent weeks to pursue your opponentsBut the underlying case against Smartmatic executives was brought by the Biden-era Justice Department, and career prosecutors approved Thursday’s new indictment, according to court documents.

Smartmatic’s co-defendants previously pleaded not guilty.

The company’s machines and software are widely used overseas, but in U.S. elections they are used only in Los Angeles. Dean Logan, Los Angeles County’s top elections official, told CNN in a statement that the county owns and controls its own voting systems but will “hold Smartmatic accountable to the terms and protections” of its current contract.

“The indictment has nothing to do with the county’s administration of elections or the integrity of Los Angeles County’s voting systems, and the county’s contracts with Smartmatic were validated to ensure that all work was done and requirements were met,” Logan said. “Additionally, the County’s engagements with Smartmatic are fixed-fee contracts with specific protection against the types of surcharges and price inflation alleged in the activities cited in the indictment.”

After President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, he and his allies spread the false statement that Smartmatic technology overturned millions of votes to steal the victory.

Smartmatic filed defamation lawsuits in 2021 against these figures and other right-wing media outlets, seeking billions of dollars in damages. The company settled with Newsmax last year for $40 million and settled with One America News for an undisclosed amount.

All of these pro-Trump media outlets and personalities deny any wrongdoing.

The Philippine scandal — which CNN was first revealed in 2023 — a gave a major boost to these pro-Trump figures facing defamation suits. They requested additional documents from the criminal investigation, hoping that these would weaken Smartmatic’s claims for damages, and they argued that the indictment proved Smartmatic’s questionable practices.

“Smartmatic was and still is a failed company: its ongoing cozy relationships with dictators, a decade of mismanagement and poor performance, and criminal charges of corruption against its highest echelons of management,” Fox News wrote in a court filing earlier this year.

Kate Mangels, a Los Angeles-based defense attorney who has handled defamation cases, said the indictment “significantly limits” Smartmatic’s ability to argue that it still suffers from ongoing damage from 2020-era lies about its alleged election fraud.

“Defendants in the defamation suits will likely argue that because Smartmatic’s reputation has been harmed, it is impossible to determine what harm results from the alleged defamation and what harm results from the indictment,” Mangels said.

The indictment also could influence settlement negotiations, Mangels said, because “at trial it would be difficult for Smartmatic to establish that all of the damages” came from the allegedly defamatory broadcasts and statements.

This story has been updated.