Court hearing centers on Newsmax CEO's role in spreading election-fraud claims

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NPR

March 22, 2025 6:00 AM ET



WILMINGTON, Del. — Following the 2020 election, allies of President Trump found a warm reception on conservative media outlets for now-debunked claims about election fraud. More than four years later, lawyers are still sparring over the role cable news executives like Newsmax's Christopher Ruddy played in broadcasting those claims, just as the company prepares to go public.

Ruddy's name was mentioned nearly as much as Newsmax itself during a day-long hearing Friday in a defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Systems against the conservative network. Dominion, a voting technology company, reached a $787.5 million settlement with Fox News in 2023 over similarly false claims on its airwaves. This case hinges on the same basic allegations: That Newsmax hosts not only welcomed guests on their shows who peddled false claims of voter fraud, but that they supported those claims knowing they were false and did so to increase ratings.

Conspiracy theory-laden claims about voter fraud and corruption at Dominion ushered it into a "slow death," Dominion attorney Eve Levin, because clients no longer wanted to work with it. Newsmax argues, much like Fox did, that Dominion's claims are "calling for censorship" and that its hosts were reporting on one of the biggest news stories of the moment.

Sitting in the front row of the sparsely attended hearing, Ruddy watched intently as Dominion's lawyers displayed images of his emails and texts, and statements he and other Newsmax employees gave under oath. They outlined Ruddy's hands-on role in the cable network's coverage — and doubts that he and others had about their on-air guests. "Sidney [Powell] needs to check into a hospital," Ruddy said about a member of Trump's legal team who became pivotal to the spread of conspiracy theories about Dominion and voter fraud following Trump's 2020 election loss. (Powell has since pleaded guilty to charges of election interference in Georgia.)

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2025/03/22/nx-s1-5336770/newsmax-ceo-ruddy-election-fraud-claims-dominion-court-hearing

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

1. I hope this takes them down to the level that they can't even afford to broadcast old cartoons...

... eom.

[yellow dahlia]

2. I monitor this and other RWmedia. The lies and conspiracy theories and propagnada

and hate they spew should be illegal. If this democracy fails, they will have contributed to it. If there is a civil war between the factions of our country, they will have instigated it. Before this is over, I expect people will get hurt due to their lies and targeting of certain people.