A New York judge has denied a request by Fox News to subpoena billionaire George Soros in its ongoing legal battle with voting systems company Smartmatic. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice David B. Cohen rejected the network’s request for documents and testimony from Soros, stating that the issue was “peripheral” to Smartmatic’s claims.
Fox had earlier sought to depose Mark Malloch Brown, president of the Soros-backed Open Society Foundation and chair of Smartmatic’s parent company. Justice Cohen clarified that the core of Smartmatic’s lawsuit is Fox’s assertion that the company was involved in election rigging, not its affiliation with Soros or the Open Society Foundation.
Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News in 2021, alleging that the network knowingly allowed Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, lawyers for former President Trump, to spread false information about its software. In response to the judge’s decision, Fox News stated, “We are pleased that counsel for Soros and Smartmatic conceded during the hearing today that there are connections between Smartmatic and Soros, as confirmed by documents from Smartmatic and the public record.”
The trial for the Smartmatic case is not expected to commence until 2025. Earlier this year, Fox News settled a separate defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787 million.
Primary Sources: The Hill, Courthouse News Service
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