Viral Election Settlements: Dominion, Fox News, and Smartmatic

Fox News paid Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million in April 2023 to settle Dominion’s defamation lawsuit over false 2020 election claims, the largest publicly known media defamation settlement in U.S. history.¹²³

What Fox Agreed To

Dominion had sued for $1.6 billion in Delaware Superior Court on March 26, 2021, so the $787.5 million figure came in at roughly half its demand.⁴ Fox’s public statement acknowledged “the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false” and framed the resolution as a reflection of its “continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards.”³ No hosts were required to correct the record on air.

The headline number also overstates what Fox actually paid. The settlement is tax-deductible as a business expense, and tax professor Robert Willens estimated the net after-tax cost at about $590 million. Media liability insurance at a company of Fox’s size can cover somewhere between $100 million and $500 million, though the actual coverage was not disclosed. Fox said the payment would not affect operations, pointing to $4 billion in cash on hand.⁵

Why Fox Settled When It Did

On March 31, 2023, less than three weeks before the settlement, Judge Eric M. Davis ruled on summary judgment that it was “crystal clear that none of the statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true.” He rejected Fox’s “pure opinion” defense on the ground that opinions are not protected when they amount to accusations of criminal activity, and he allowed the case to proceed against parent Fox Corporation, finding a jury could reasonably infer that Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch either knew the claims were false or “recklessly disregarded the truth.”⁶ The only question left for the jury was actual malice.

Discovery had already made that question dangerous for Fox. Dominion identified twenty defamatory statements broadcast across Fox programming, grouped around claims that Dominion machines were used to rig the election, that an algorithm manipulated vote counts, that the software traced back to technology built for Hugo Chávez, and that the company had corrupt political financial ties. Fox’s own fact-checking unit, the “Brain Room,” had concluded ten days after the election that claims about Dominion switching or deleting votes were “100% false.” Dominion said it sent Fox staff more than 3,600 emails trying to correct the record. The broadcasts continued.⁶

Internal messages showed hosts privately dismissing the same claims they were airing. Tucker Carlson texted Laura Ingraham in November 2020: “Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her.”⁷ Sean Hannity testified he “did not believe it for one second” when Powell went on his show to allege the machines were rigged. Anchor Bret Baier texted Fox News President Jay Wallace that the fraud claims were baseless; Wallace replied, “We need to fact check this crap.”⁸

Discovery also produced a business rationale. CEO Suzanne Scott criticized an on-air fact-check of Trump’s fraud claims in a December 2020 email: “This has to stop now. The audience is furious and we are just feeding them material. Bad for business.”⁸⁷

Where Dominion’s Other Cases Landed

Fox was the biggest defendant, not the only one. Dominion sued several people and outlets that pushed the same claims. Most have now resolved.

Newsmax settled in August 2025 for $67 million, payable in three installments: $27 million up front, then $20 million in 2026 and $20 million in 2027. Newsmax did not admit fault or retract, and CEO Christopher Ruddy called the suit “a direct attack on free speech and a free press.” A Delaware judge had ruled that Newsmax aired defamatory statements about the company; Dominion had sought $1.6 billion.⁹¹⁰
Rudy Giuliani reached a confidential settlement with Dominion, and the $1.3 billion suit was dismissed with prejudice on September 26, 2025. Each side bears its own legal costs.¹¹¹²
Sidney Powell settled in late September 2025 on undisclosed terms; Dominion had sought $1.3 billion.¹³
One America News settled in early October 2025 on undisclosed terms; Dominion had sought $1.6 billion.¹³
Mike Lindell and MyPillow are still being sued. As of early 2026, the case is active before Judge Carl Nichols in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Lindell has countersued and has said he is unaware of any settlement offers.¹³¹⁴
Patrick Byrne, the former Overstock.com CEO, is also still being sued, with filings as recent as May 2026 before Judge Nichols. His attorney has said he is “looking forward to a trial.”¹³¹⁵

The Smartmatic Case Is Separate and Still Live

Smartmatic, a different voting technology company, filed its own $2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox in February 2021 in New York State Supreme Court. Named defendants include Fox Corporation, Fox News Network, the late Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, Rudolph Giuliani, and Sidney Powell. Smartmatic alleges Fox broadcast false claims that its technology was used to rig the 2020 election for Joe Biden.¹⁶ A New York appeals court has ruled that Smartmatic is not a “limited purpose public figure,” which could put it below the actual malice bar that Dominion had to clear.¹⁷

The case is tangled with an unrelated federal criminal matter. In August 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida indicted Smartmatic’s parent company and several executives on charges of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and money laundering, alleging at least $1 million in bribes to a Philippine election official to secure contracts for the 2016 Philippine elections; a superseding indictment came in October 2025.¹⁸ Fox has called the indictment “powerful rebuttal evidence” on reputation and damages; Smartmatic says the Philippines case has “no connection with the underlying charge of libel.”¹⁹

In December 2025, Justice David B. Cohen denied Fox’s motion to pause the defamation case pending the criminal trial.¹⁶ In May 2026, the Appellate Division vacated the Note of Issue to permit further discovery into how the criminal indictment affects Smartmatic’s business, but affirmed the denial of a stay. The court noted that Smartmatic executives have repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment during depositions in the defamation case.²⁰ No trial date has been publicly set.

What the Settlement Did and Didn’t Change

Because the Dominion case ended before trial, it produced no jury verdict and no appellate opinion binding on future courts. Scholars have largely concluded the case will not reshape the “actual malice” standard from New York Times v. Sullivan. Media law scholar Sandra Baron said the litigation is unlikely to have “a significant impact on the law of ‘actual malice’ or how it is litigated.” Professor Samantha Barbas said it did show the standard is “difficult to meet but not impossible,” proving “libel law is not dead in America.”¹⁷

The bigger effect looks practical. Discovery turned Fox’s own texts and emails into the central evidence against it, and attorney Martin Garbus predicted networks would respond by adopting “internal rules so they will not print the kinds of notes and memos” that hurt Fox.¹⁷ Whether that caution reaches editorial decisions or only document retention is a question the Smartmatic case and the two remaining Dominion suits may end up answering.

1
CNN. OAN and Smartmatic Reach Settlement
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Reuters. Dominion’s Defamation Case Against Fox Poised for Trial After Delay
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Fox News Press. Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems Reach Settlement
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Justia. Dominion v. Fox News, N21C-03-257 EMD
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WBAL-TV. Fox’s Settlement With Dominion Unlikely to Cost It $787.5M
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Delaware Superior Court. Dominion v. Fox News, Summary Judgment Opinion
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Time. Fox Dominion Lawsuit Defamation Trial
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NBC News. Dominion Releases Previously Redacted Slides in Fox News Lawsuit
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Politico. Newsmax Dominion Voting Defamation Settlement
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CNN. Newsmax Dominion Settle 2020 Election Defamation Lawsuit
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The New York Times. Rudy Giuliani Dominion Case Settlement
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ABC News. Dominion, Rudy Giuliani Reach Confidential Settlement in $1.3B Defamation Case
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Business Insider. Dominion Still Suing Mike Lindell, Settled Before Acquisition
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CourtListener. US Dominion, Inc. v. My Pillow, Inc.
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CourtListener. US Dominion, Inc. v. Byrne
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NPR. Fox News Smartmatic Lawsuit Election Claims Trial
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First Amendment Watch. Legal Scholars Weigh In on the Lasting Significance of Dominion v. Fox
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U.S. Department of Justice. Voting Machine Company Charged in Philippine Bribery and Money Laundering Scheme
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Courthouse News. Fox Loses Bid to Pause Smartmatic Defamation Case in Wake of Charges Against Voting Machine Company
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New York Courts. Smartmatic USA Corp. v. Fox Corp.