Newsmax has agreed to pay $67 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the “faith-friendly” right-wing cable network of defaming Dominion Voting Systems. Newsmax falsely claimed Dominion helped rig the 2020 election for Joe Biden.
Newsmax was not required to apologize or issue a retraction, and in a statement issued Monday the company was unbowed, claiming its stories had been “fair,” “balanced” and “conducted within professional standards of journalism.”
The Dominion case is the third time Newsmax has settled a defamation lawsuit arising from the false claims it repeated during its 2020 election coverage:
- In 2024, Newsmax paid $40 million to settle a defamation suit brought by Smartmatic, another voting tech company.
- In 2021, Newsmax reached an undisclosed settlement with Eric Coomer, a Dominion executive that Newsmax and other outlets claimed worked tweaked Dominion machines to steal the election from Donald Trump.
Unlike its 2025 settlement, Newsmax’s 2021 settlement with Coomer required the broadcaster to apologize for its errors and issue a retraction admitting it had “no evidence” that Coomer did anything wrong.
Newsmax is favored by some conservatives who consider Fox News too liberal. Those two networks, along with One American News Network, embraced Trump’s false claims of a stolen election and aired reports that blamed election firms for the theft.
Even today, Trump continues his campaign against digital voting machines.
Even today, Trump continues his campaign against digital voting machines. He announced Monday on Truth Social that he plans to “lead a movement” to get rid of mail-in ballots and voting machines in the country ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
There is no credible evidence voting machines have changed the outcomes of elections.
Fox News paid Dominion an unprecedented $787.5 million to settle its case in 2023 rather than take the case to trial and publicly expose evidence of the network’s reporting failures.
As BNG reported in June, a Denver jury determined MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell must pay $2.3 million to Dominion’s Eric Coomer for calling him “treasonous” and a “traitor” for stealing the election. Despite that judgment, Lindell claims he was “vindicated” in the case.
In 2024, Salem Media withdrew the conspiracist film 2000 Mules, which was viewed by millions of Christians, many in their churches. The film claimed 2,000 human “mules” harvested 400,000 fake ballots that rigged the 2020 election against Trump, but lawyers for the filmmakers said there was no evidence for the claim.
Mike Lindell, the “MyPillow Guy”, speaks about corporate wealth and growth. at Turning Point USA’s “AmFest 2022” on Monday, Dec. 19. 2022, in Phoenix, Arizona,. (Photo by John Rudoff/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)
In Monday’s statement, Newsmax said it settled with Dominion despite doing nothing wrong: “From the outset, Newsmax has always maintained its reporting was not defamatory and its coverage was consistent with accepted journalistic standards. Newsmax believed it was critically important for the American people to hear both sides of the election disputes that arose in 2020. We stand by our coverage as fair, balanced and conducted within professional standards of journalism.”
Newsmax says it settled only because it would not get a fair decision from Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis, the same judge Newsmax says was unfair when he presided over Dominion’s case against Fox.
“The judiciary’s willingness to punish news organizations for reporting on matters of urgent national debate undermines the role of the press in a free society,” Newsmax said in its statement.
In this Aug. 30, 2018, photo, Eric Coomer from Dominion Voting demonstrates his company’s touch screen tablet that includes a paper audit trail at the second meeting of Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s Secure, Accessible & Fair Elections Commission in Grovetown, Ga. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
In contrast, Newsmax readily admitted it had no evidence for its election-rigging claims against Eric Coomer in its 2021 settlement: “Newsmax has found no evidence that Dr. Coomer interfered with Dominion voting machines or voting software in any way, nor that Dr. Coomer ever claimed to have done so. Nor has Newsmax found any evidence that Dr. Coomer ever participated in any conversation with members of ‘Antifa,’ nor that he was directly involved with any partisan political organization.”
Newsmax is not a Christian broadcasting company, but its regular contributors include pastors Greg Laurie and Allen Jackson, and it dismisses Christian nationalism as “a recent label created by the radical left” and “a scare tactic used to bully America’s Christians into submission and suppress Christian voices in the public square.”
When a contract dispute temporarily took Newsmax off DIRECTV’s channel lineup in 2023, the network’s Christian defenders ran to its rescue and claimed Newsmax was sharing a form of Christian persecution.
“We just see this more and more, the weaponizing of government,” said Troy Miller, president of the National Religious Broadcasters, as he defended Newsmax in the Christian network CBN.
“Christians have to realize what’s going on here is a real clash of worldviews,” said Miller. “It’s time for Christians to step up and take back this media landscape. … I think that the secular left really leaning socialist kind of worldview realizes if it doesn’t silence the church, the Christian worldview, then they’re never going to win. So, I think we’re right in the crosshairs.”
More defamation cases await their days in court, including a handful filed against evangelical Christian influencers. Coomer has sued:
- Salem Media and one of its radio hosts, Eric Metaxas
- Salem Media of Colorado and one of its hosts, Randy Corporon
- Jim Hoft of The Gateway Pundit
- Clay Clark of the Thrive Time Show and the ReAwaken America Tour
- Colorado conspiracist and podcaster Joe Oltmann, who was the first to publicly accuse Coomer
- Donald Trump’s campaign and two lawyers who promoted his claims of a rigged election associates: Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell
Both One American News Network and its on-air personality Chanel Rion have settled suits brought by Eric Coomer.
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