{"id":7385,"date":"2023-10-31T03:23:48","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T03:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/business\/judge-shuts-down-fox-bid-to-subpoena-george-soros-and-smartmatic\/"},"modified":"2023-10-31T03:23:48","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T03:23:48","slug":"judge-shuts-down-fox-bid-to-subpoena-george-soros-and-smartmatic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=7385","title":{"rendered":"Judge shuts down Fox bid to subpoena George Soros and Smartmatic"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n A New York judge on Monday shut down\u00a0an attempt by Fox News\u00a0to\u00a0subpoena\u00a0<\/strong>George Soros,\u00a0the Jewish billionaire and frequent target of far-right conspiracy theories,\u00a0and search\u00a0for additional links between him\u00a0<\/strong>and Smartmatic, a voting technology company\u00a0at the center of false election claims during the 2020 election.\n <\/p>\n

\n Manhattan Supreme Court Justice David B. Cohen rejected Fox Corp. and Fox News\u2019 attempts to subpoena George Soros, his son Alex Soros, and\u00a0their philanthropic organization Open Society Foundation (OSF)\u00a0for documents related to the\u00a0election defamation case.\u00a0Soros, who has donated heavily to progressive causes, has been the frequent target of right-wing attacks, often playing into antisemitic tropes.\n <\/p>\n

\n Fox argued that Alex and George Soros, as well as OSF, possess material necessary to the network\u2019s defense in the defamation trial.\u00a0The documentation, Fox argued, would establish a connection between George Soros and Smartmatic. But\u00a0Fox\u2019s documentation was irrelevant, the\u00a0judge\u00a0said, adding that the matter was peripheral.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI base that on the finding that the crux of Smartmatic\u2019s 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,\u201d Cohen said. \u201cThat\u2019s a peripheral matter \u2014 at best, it\u2019s a possible rationale for defamation.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n A Fox News spokesperson attempted to portray the hearing as a victory, telling CNN, \u201cWe 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.\u201d\u00a0Smartmatic did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.\n <\/p>\n

\n Smartmatic sued Fox Corp. and Fox News for $2.7 billion in the wake of the 2020 election, accusing the network\u00a0of destroying its business prospects\u00a0by promoting\u00a0a false conspiracy theory that the\u00a0vote\u00a0was rigged. Fox has since filed a counterclaim, arguing that Smartmatic is using the high-profile lawsuit to attract investors and quell free speech.\n <\/p>\n

\n Fox\u2019s requests to subpoena George and Alex Soros and OSF stem from statements made by former New York\u00a0mayor and Donald\u00a0Trump attorney,\u00a0Rudy Giuliani, as well as former Trump attorney Sidney Powell, who alleged after Trump\u2019s electoral loss that Smartmatic has ties to George Soros.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhy did we serve the Soros group?\u201d Aaron\u00a0Marks, an attorney for Fox, asked the courtroom Monday. \u201cIn the complaint,\u00a0there are allegations by Smartmatic that Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, on the airwaves of Fox News, made defamatory remarks, largely implying that Smartmatic \u2014 a supposedly neutral and apolitical voting machine company \u2014 was rather,\u00a0in fact,\u00a0biased and was likely to chat in the direction of Democrats.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Using comments made by the two\u00a0former\u00a0Trump associates, attorneys\u00a0for Fox\u00a0highlighted that\u00a0Mark Malloch-Brown, a long-time friend of George Soros, chaired Smartmatic\u2019s parent company ahead of the election and that Malloch-Brown was also a board member for OSF, which was founded by George Soros.\n <\/p>\n

\n Attorneys\u00a0for Fox\u00a0alleged\u00a0that\u00a0comments made by Giuliani and Powell did not constitute defamation but were instead intended to question the nature of this relationship.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe\u2019re interested in the closeness of the relationship, what Soros has done for Smartmatic over time,\u201d\u00a0Marks\u00a0said. \u201cThe evidence we got from Smartmatic about these meetings, we believe that that is pertinent for us to develop that further.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe picture is incomplete, and we believe we have the right to seek discovery from a non-party,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Through the subpoena, Fox sought to direct OSF\u00a0to search for any mention of the key term \u201cSmartmatic\u201d to clarify the relationship between the voting technology company and Soros, Marks said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Benjamin McCallen,\u00a0a lawyer for\u00a0Soros, said the request wasn\u2019t actually related to the statements made by Giuliani and Powell but concerns the relationship between Soros and Malloch-Brown \u2014 which was not the issue at hand.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey\u2019re trying to prove something that\u2019s not in dispute,\u201d McCallen said, adding that Fox was using the closeness of the two men as grounds for the subpoena.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey\u2019re seeking any documents we have on Smartmatic generally,\u201d McCallen said. \u201cFox\u2019s argument is maybe it\u2019s peripherally relevant, we just want them to run a search term. We are non-parties to this case and we wish to remain so.\u201d\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A New York judge on Monday shut down\u00a0an attempt by Fox News\u00a0to\u00a0subpoena\u00a0George Soros,\u00a0the Jewish billionaire and frequent target of far-right conspiracy theories,\u00a0and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"\nJudge shuts down Fox bid to subpoena George Soros and Smartmatic | inFundPros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A New York judge on Monday shut down\u00a0an attempt by Fox News\u00a0to\u00a0subpoena\u00a0George Soros,\u00a0the Jewish billionaire and frequent target of far-right conspiracy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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