(Zero Hedge)—In a new legal memorandum filed with the New York Supreme Court, Fox News accused Smartmatic executives – including CEO Antonio Mugica – of “spoliation of records” related to the high-stakes lawsuit, which stems from Fox’s coverage of the 2020 election.
The conservative network pointed to explosive internal communications to support its claims.
“On the eve of filing this lawsuit, and while the U.S. Department of Justice was investigating Smartmatic and its executives for bribery and corruption, Smartmatic’s CEO Antonio Mugica, in writing, ordered Smartmatic’s President Roger Piñate Jr. – who has since been federally indicted for those crimes – to delete WhatsApp mobile messages discussing critical damages issues surrounding the outlandish $2.7 billion the company planned to seek from Fox,” the filing states.
Just days earlier, Fox alleges, “a top Smartmatic executive, again in writing, directed his subordinates to doctor key customer records to manufacture support for the massive damages case Smartmatic had invented.”
The legal salvo also claims Smartmatic employees went on a mass deletion spree.
“[W]hile they should have been retaining documents, key Smartmatic employees deleted their mobile messages, depriving Fox of yet more evidence undermining Smartmatic’s unsupported damages claim,” the document says.
Fox’s attorneys told the court that nearly “two dozen Smartmatic executives and sales personnel deleted data relevant to Smartmatic’s multi-billion-dollar damages claims either shortly before or while this case was pending.” They added: “For many witnesses, the spoliation is pervasive and resulted in the apparent deletion of all, or nearly all, of their mobile data.”
The result? “The destroyed text messages have left serious gaps in the record from individuals who were directly responsible for developing Smartmatic’s farfetched damages story,” the filing reads. “Smartmatic, its CEO, and the high-ranking employees at issue were plainly hoping to leave Fox with nothing to rebut the self-interested testimony of the Smartmatic witnesses who provide the company’s sole evidence of damages. This destruction of evidence should not be rewarded.”
The court filing is just the latest salvo in a long-running war between the media giant and the election tech company.
Smartmatic is suing Fox for $2.7 billion over its coverage of the 2020 election – alleging Fox aired false claims that Smartmatic’s software helped rig the outcome. As The Federalist’s Beth Brelje previously reported, Smartmatic claims in court filings that it “lost business” as a result of the reports.
Fox, for its part, argued in a separate filing last week that Smartmatic was already facing financial struggles prior to the 2020 election. That filing also alleged Smartmatic’s equipment “was not certified,” the firm “didn’t follow bidding requirements,” and its services “were not competitively priced,” according to Brelje.
In its latest ask to the court, Fox is seeking a finding of “intentional spoliation by Smartmatic,” along with “all relief that the Court deems appropriate.” Among other requests, Fox wants the court to issue “adverse inferences that the spoliated evidence undermined Smartmatic’s damages claims,” strike any lost-profits claims from post-2022, and cap Smartmatic’s general damages to “nominal” amounts.
Smartmatic, however, is firing back – accusing Fox of attempting to distract from its own misconduct.
“Fox continues to smear Smartmatic to distract from the truth: Fox lied following the 2020 election and has repeatedly lied to shield itself from accountability in this case,” said Erik Connolly, Smartmatic’s attorney, in a statement to The Federalist.
“Fox’s baseless attacks are nothing more than retaliation, a deliberate effort to avoid addressing its own destruction of evidence,” Connolly added. “Smartmatic has met all of its legal obligations in this case. Unlike Fox, Smartmatic has preserved and produced evidence in accordance with New York law.”
We didn’t hear a denial in that…
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