MAGA propaganda network One America News (OAN) has been hit with a defamation suit by Smartmatics, a voting machine company, that had been accused by the GQP of manipulating the machines to benefit President Joe Biden, according to reporting by CNN.
The president of OAN shared stolen passwords obtained by hackers (that he had solicited) directly to Mike Lindell and Sydney Powell.
Smartmatic now has the receipts from an anonymous source and filed them with the court alleging criminal activity.
The ongoing trial is still in the discovery phase.
Marshall Cohen writes in CNN Business:
The president of the far-right cable network One America News solicited additional information from an anonymous tipster who provided “stolen” passwords of Smartmatic employees after the 2020 election, according to emails recently disclosed in court and new allegations from the voting technology company.
The revelation builds on CNN’s previous reporting that OAN President Charles Herring forwarded the purported Smartmatic passwords to ex-Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell within days and later passed it to Mike Lindell. At the time, the two prominent Trump allies were falsely claiming on OAN and other right-wing networks that Smartmatic rigged the election to put Joe Biden in the White House.
Smartmatic claims these email exchanges are evidence of potential crimes by OAN executives, including violations of data privacy and hacking laws, which the network vehemently denies.
Smartmatic is suing OAN for defamation stemming from the 2020 election lies. OAN denies defaming Smartmatic or anyone else, and its lawyers say nobody at OAN broke the law in connection with the alleged passwords.
In a recent court filing, Smartmatic publicly disclosed – for the first time – the original email that OAN received on January 5, 2021, containing the alleged passwords.
Smartmatic also has pending lawsuits against Fox News, Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, Rudy Guiliani, Jeanne Pirro, and other far-right outlets. They all knew their claims and conspiracy theories on the Smartmatic voting machines were false when they aired them.
Smartmatics has sued Newsmax as well.
So many scandals. Who can keep up?