RTTNews | Feb 12, 2021 09:15AM EST

09:15 Friday, February 12, 2021 (RTTNews.com) - FOX News Media's Maria Bartiromo, Judge Jeanine Pirro and former host Lou Dobbs filed separate motions to dismiss on Thursday night in response to the lawsuit by electronic voting company Smartmatic. The filings follow FOX News Media's earlier motion to dismiss, which was filed on Monday, February 8th.

The latest motion argued that Smartmatic's 285-page, $2.7 billion complaint is not just meritless; It is a legal shakedown designed to chill speech and punish reporting.

FOX News Media said that Smartmatic's headline-seeking, multi-billion-dollar lawsuit thus should be seenand rejectedfor what it is: an unconstitutional attempt by a money-losing company to try to refill its coffers at the expense of its constitutional traditions.

On February 4, Smartmatic said it initiated a lawsuit against Fox Corp., seeking more than $2.7 billion, plus an additional amount for punitive damages, for defamation and disparagement as a result of the disinformation campaign against Smartmatic by Fox and other named defendants following the 2020 US presidential election. The complaint was filed in New York State Court in Manhattan.

Smartmatic alleged that, in November and December 2020, Fox News broadcast multiple reports stating and implying that Smartmatic had fixed and rigged the 2020 election. They repeated the false claims and accusations on air and in articles and social media postings that were together seen by millions in the US and even more around the world.

Read the original article on RTTNews ( https://www.rttnews.com/3169469/fox-news-media-maria-bartiromo-judge-jeanine-pirro-and-dobbs-move-to-dismiss-smartmatic-lawsuit.aspx)

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