
© Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images for LinkedInBillionaire venture capitalist and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman
Smartmatic, the electronic tabulator company suing Fox News for alleged defamation following the 2020 election, failed in a February court hearing to disclose a meeting with Democrat megadonor , newly unsealed court documents allege.
Following the 2020 election, both Fox News and Newsmax "hosted commentators who aired concerns that tabulators were not secure, were vulnerable to voter fraud, and had possibly
changed Trump votes to Biden votes," as described in these pages by
Logan Washburn. Smartmatic
sued, arguing the comments amounted to defamation. Fox previously
settled a suit with Dominion Voting over similar allegations while Newsmax recently settled with Smartmatic for $40 million,
according to NBC.
As Washburn reported, Fox had previously expressed concerns about a "deep-pocketed 'third party' behind the suit" — allegations that Smartmatic
denied in 2023, according to Reuters. But reporting from The Washington Post
revealed Hoffman invested millions in Smartmatic, as the company sued news outlets for their reporting about the 2020 election. In July 2024, the Post reported that Hoffman had "connected with Smartmatic chief executive Antonio Mugica through friends of friends" and was "boosting" its lawsuit against Fox.
Comment: Reid Hoffman has had his fingers in a lot of legal pies trying to derail Trump, most notably bankrolling E. Jean Carroll's rape accusations against Trump.