Judge rejects Fox News attempt to subpoena Soros

A judge in New York rejected a request by attorneys for Fox News to subpoena billionaire George Soros as part of the cable news channel’s ongoing legal fight with voting systems company Smartmatic.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice David B. Cohen on Monday shot down a request from Fox to compel Soros to provide documents and testimony as part of its process of discovery in the case.

Soros is a progressive billionaire who often draws the ire of conservative media figures and Republican politicians.

Fox, in a court filing earlier this month, sought to depose Mark Malloch Brown, who is the president of the Soros-backed Open Society Foundation and served as chair of Smartmatic’s parent company.

“I base that on the finding that the crux of Smartmatic’s claims is that Fox has asserted they were part of rigging [the election], not that Smartmatic was affiliated with George Soros, Alex Soros, or the OSF,” Cohen said in open court Monday, CNN reported. “That’s a peripheral matter — at best, it’s a possible rationale for defamation.”

Smartmatic sued Fox in 2021 for $2.7 billion, arguing that the network knowingly gave Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, former President Trump’s lawyers following the 2020 election, a platform to air falsehoods about its software.

In a statement issued in response to the judge’s ruling, the network said: “We are pleased that counsel for Soros and Smartmatic conceded during the hearing today that there are connections between Smartmatic and Soros, as confirmed by documents from Smartmatic and the public record.”

This spring, Fox agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787 million to settle separate defamation claims brought against the network over its coverage of the 2020 election.

A trial in the Smartmatic case is not expected until 2025.