Billionaire Reid Hoffman Invests Millions in Smartmatic to Help Blockbuster Defamation Lawsuit Against Fox News

Tobias Hase/AP Images

Smartmatic has received a billionaire’s backing.

Reid Hoffman , the LinkedIn co-founder and Democratic megadonor, made a multi-million dollar investment into the voting tech company, according to The Washington Post .

The Post reported that the investment was made “in part to help the company sustain its costly litigation” the firm is waging against several media outlets, including Fox News and Newsmax, over their coverage of the 2020 election.

Two voting tech companies, Smartmatic and Dominion, sued a suite of news outlets and personalities for defamation over commentary that falsely accused them of helping to steal the election from Donald Trump .

In a statement to the Post , Hoffman said: “Smartmatic built a global business by using technology to better engage citizens, regardless of party or ideology, by making voting simple and trustworthy. After Donald Trump lost in 2020, however, Smartmatic became a target of the defamatory campaign to overturn his defeat.”

This is not the first time Hoffman has funded a legal challenge to Trump’s movement. The long-time Democratic megadonor helped fund E. Jean Carroll’s sexual assault lawsuit against the former president.

Smartmatic is suing Fox News for $2.7 billion and Newsmax for an undisclosed amount .

In a statement to Mediaite, a spokesperson for Fox News disputed Smartmatic’s damages figure.

“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,” they said. “We remain ready to defend this case surrounding extremely newsworthy events when it goes to trial next year.”

Newsmax did not respond to an immediate request for comment. A Newsmax staffer who spoke to Mediaite on condition of anonymity in order to speak freely told Mediaite the news of Hoffman’s multi-million dollar Smartmatic investment is troubling news for the future of the embattled network.

“There has been significant concern among Newsmax staff, talent and executives about the legal battle with Smartmatic,” the staffer said. “A number of Newsmax staffers are proactively looking to jump to other outlets before the ship sinks.”

“Newsmax cannot afford even a fraction of the settlement that Fox paid out and with the news of Hoffman’s investment, I’m not sure how Newsmax survives as a company,” they added.