(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Reid Hoffman, a high-profile Democratic billionaire donor, has emerged as a key financier behind Smartmatic’s lawsuit against Fox News, contradicting the voting technology company’s previous claims of self-funding.
Hoffman unleashed a “multimillion-dollar investment intended in part to help the company sustain its costly litigation,” reported the Washington Post on Monday.
Smartmatic is currently suing Fox News and Newsmax for defamation following their coverage of Smartmatic during the 2020 election.
Strikingly, Hoffman’s emergence as the lawsuit’s financier contradicts Smartmatic’s previous assertions.
“Smartmatic does not have any third-party funding for the [Fox] cases, and never has had such funding,” Smartmatic attorney Erik Connolly told Reuters in April 2023.
According to the Washington Post, the timing of Hoffman’s investment could raise questions about the real intentions of the lawsuit, which Fox labeled as “baseless.”
It isn’t immediately clear whether Hoffman’s funding came after Reuters’ report was published. Nevertheless, it could corroborate Fox’s argument that the defamation lawsuit lacks merit, given Smartmatic’s lack of profits since 2017.
“As a report prepared by our financial expert shows, Smartmatic’s damages claims against Fox News are highly implausible, disconnected from reality and on their face intended to chill First Amendment freedoms, so their alliance with a high profile Democratic donor and longtime supporter of President Biden to fund their lawsuit is entirely predictable,” Fox said.
In a statement, Hoffman unashamedly defended his financial backing of Smartmatic, portraying the company as an apparent victim in the post-2020 election controversy. There is no evidence to back such assertion.
“Smartmatic built a global business by using technology to better engage citizens, regardless of party or ideology, by making voting simple and trustworthy,” Hoffman claimed, before vaguely arguing, “After Donald Trump lost in 2020, however, Smartmatic became a target of the defamatory campaign to overturn his defeat.”
Hoffman’s adviser, Dmitri Mehlhorn, stated that Hoffman got to know Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica through mutual acquaintances, according to the newspaper.
“They already kind of liked each other broadly and remotely, and then this deal came up,” Mehlhorn said, referring to the convenient allyship.
His previous involvement in high-profile lawsuits, including backing E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against Donald Trump, highlight Hoffman’s sentiments against Trump, MAGA Republicans.
This was more evident during his financial backing of failed presidential candidate Nikki Haley in her longshot bid against Trump.
