Court sets Smartmatic dismissal date on Giuliani, Bartiromo, others

A date has been set for oral arguments over the dismissal motions of Fox News, Rudy Giuliani, Maria Bartiromo, Sidney Powell, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro in the $2.7-billion Smartmatic defamation case about 2020 presidential election conspiracy theories.

Judge David B. Cohen of the New York State Supreme Court for the County of New York will hear the arguments on Aug. 17 starting at 9:30 a.m. from attorneys for those seeking to dismiss the case.

One team of lawyers will represent Fox, Bartiromo, Dobbs, and Pirro in their motion to dismiss, which was filed April 26. 

Giuliani and Powell, who both filed their dismissal motions on April 8, each have their own representation. 

Together, Fox, Bartiromo, Dobbs and Pirro have argued that Smartmatic hasn’t proven they were acting maliciously while talking about or reporting on the election. Maliciousness is a standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court in the watershed 1964 case The New York Times v. Sullivan. They also all each filed individual reasons the case against them should be thrown out.

Lack of malice is also one of Giuliani’s arguments for dismissal, and Powell has argued, in part, that the court has no jurisdiction over her. 

Fox has similarly filed a dismissal motion in the $1.6-billion lawsuit that Dominion Voting Systems has brought against it. The suit also concerns claims made during the network’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election.

In addition, Dominion has sued Powell and MyPillow company CEO Michael Lindell. Powell has filed a motion to dismiss that case, while Lindell has filed a countersuit.