Following President Donald Trump’s selection of Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as top federal prosecutor in Washington, DC, the nation’s largest United States Attorney’s office, it has caused some controversy regarding a lawsuit against her by a voting technology company.
Specifically, Trump appointed Pirro to serve as Washington, DC’s interim attorney after Ed Martin, who currently holds the position and was the President’s first pick to stay there permanently, failed to get enough support to advance in the US Senate.
Details of the lawsuit against Jeanine Pirro
As it happens, Pirro is one of the defendants in the defamation lawsuit in a New York state court by voting tech vendor Smartmatic USA, over spreading false claims that the company had helped ‘steal’ the 2020 presidential election from Trump.
Aside from Pirro, other accused parties include Fox News, news anchor Maria Bartiromo, television host Lou Dobbs, and lawyer Rudy Giuliani, with the libel suit alleging that they either knew that the voting machine conspiracy theories were false or had serious doubts regarding them when they aired, seeking $2.7 billion in damages.
Indeed, she might face questions from Senate Democrats over her role in the matter, as well as regarding the defamation lawsuit by another voting machinery company, Dominion Voting Systems, which settled with Fox News for $787 million in 2023.
In January this year, the New York appeals court ruled unanimously that Fox Corporation must face trial, determining that Smartmatic had convincingly argued the direct responsibility of the media behemoth for broadcasting false claims that the firm’s tech helped rig the 2020 election.
According to the latest information from Smartmatic’s website, posted on April 30, the voting tech company submitted its motion for summary judgment in the lawsuit against Fox News, “presenting overwhelming evidence that the network knowingly promoted false claims about Smartmatic’s role in the 2020 U.S. election.”
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