Newsmax And Pro-Trump Media Walk Back Voting Conspiracies After Legal Threat Smartmatic, a voting systems company, has threatened multiple outlets with defamation suits. Newsmax, a far-right news network that routinely peddles baseless conspiracy theories that favor Donald Trump, over the weekend began airing a lengthy clarification of its coverage about voter fraud in the presidential election. In a nearly two-minute statement that is being read on all Newsmax shows, the channel is essentially walking back its own groundless claims that electronic voting system companies Smartmatic and Dominion were involved in some kind of nefarious attempt to steal the election. “There are several facts our viewers and readers should be aware,” host John Tabacco said on Monday, before debunking a long list of conspiratorial claims. “Neither Dominion nor Smartmatic has any relationship with George Soros. Smartmatic is a U.S. company and not owned by the Venezuelan government, Hugo Chavez or any foreign official or entity. Smartmatic states it has no operations in Venezuela,” he continued. Newsmax’s attempt to “clarify” its misinformation, which has the tone of a rote legal statement, was delivered after Smartmatic issued a series of legal threats to far-right media outlets last week demanding retractions and suggesting it could pursue defamation lawsuits. Thus far, Fox Business, Fox News and Newsmax have aired segments that appear intended to defend themselves against such legal action. On Friday, top-rated Fox Business host Lou Dobbs ran a pre-taped segment with election security expert Eddie Perez debunking various claims related to Smartmatic and Dominion. Fox News host Jeanine Pirro’s show aired the same clip-on Saturday, featuring Perez stating he has seen no evidence of any election fraud related to Smartmatic. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/newsmax-smartmatic-fox-news_n_5fe108e8c5b60d416344f057