Newsmax pays $67 million to settle defamation case linked to 2020 election coverage

Newsmax will pay $67 million to Dominion Voting Systems to settle a lawsuit over the network's coverage of the 2020 presidential election. In this photo from April 3, 2025, Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani join others at the opening of trading at the New York Stock Exchange.

Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images

Newsmax will pay $67 million to settle one of the last outstanding defamation lawsuits against a news organization for airing false claims that the 2020 election was rigged.

Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems – the same voting-technology company that had received a $787 million settlement from Fox News over its election coverage – brought the lawsuit against Newsmax. A trial was scheduled to begin in October.

In the lawsuit, filed in the months after the 2020 election, Dominion accused the cable news network of spreading false claims that the company’s voting technology had been manipulated to help Joe Biden beat Donald Trump. Like other right-wing news networks, Newsmax featured Trump allies who promoted these conspiracies, including former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell and supporter Mike Lindell of My Pillow.