The pro-Trump cable channel Newsmax has settled a major 2020 election defamation lawsuit with Smartmatic in a last-minute agreement to avoid a high-stakes trial that posed a significant risk to the small outlet.
“Newsmax is pleased to announce it has resolved the litigation brought by Smartmatic through a confidential settlement,” the network said in a statement Thursday.
CNN has reached out to Smartmatic for comment.
The terms of the settlement were not immediately known. The deal comes hours after jury selection got underway in a Wilmington, Delaware, courtroom ahead of opening statements scheduled for Monday.
A loss at trial could have put Newsmax on the hook to pay tens of millions of dollars to Smartmatic, putting the small cable channel in financial peril.
“This is a case that is a bet-your-company case for Newsmax,” Howard Cooper, an attorney for the network, said at a recent pretrial hearing.
The settlement is the latest in a string of 2020 election defamation cases to reach an out-of-court agreement before trial. Fox News famously settled with Dominion Voting Systems last year for $787 million, and the far-right channel One America News settled with Smartmatic earlier this year. Both cases were also about the same 2020 election smears.
Newsmax still faces a separate defamation lawsuit over similar claims that was filed by Dominion. Newsmax denies all wrongdoing.
This is a developing story and will be updated.