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NEW YORK, NY — MARCH 20: The News Corp. building on 6th Avenue, home to Fox News, the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, on March 20, 2019 in New York City, New York. Disney acquired Fox today in a $71.3 million deal (Photo by Kevin Hagen/Getty Images).
Fox News received mix news from a Manhattan judge on Thursday in an effort to obtain testimony about the valuation of voting software and hardware company Smartmatic Corp.
Attorneys for the network hoped to depose billionaire Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of business-themed social media website LinkedIn.
In a bench ruling, New York Supreme Court Justice David Cohen nixed the Hoffman deposition request, according to a courtroom report by Courthouse News Service. The network aimed to get Hoffman on the record over reported comments made by one of the billionaire’s longtime associates about a meeting with Smartmatic’s top brass.
At the same time, the judge signed off on a request to depose Dmitri Mehlhorn, Hoffman’s former political strategist and business partner.
The cable news network’s deposition requests stem from a July 2024 article in The Washington Post titled, “A billionaire is boosting a major defamation lawsuit against Fox News.” The article details Hoffman’s decision to make a “multimillion-dollar investment intended in part to help the company sustain its costly litigation.”
In the article by reporter Jeremy Barr, Hoffman’s own voice is absent; Mehlhorn, however, is quoted on his then-boss’s behalf.
“Not only is Smartmatic a great investment in terms of financial returns, this was a way to provide capital that would allow the truth to be found in the courts,” Mehlhorn said. “This is a company that is a great company with a great CEO, and this case is a great case.”
The decision to invest — later reported to be to the tune of $25 million — came about after Hoffman met with Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica to discuss the company’s financial condition.
Fox News, for its part, is largely concerned about comments Mehlhorn made to the Post that estimated the company’s valuation.
“The 2024 election is the biggest election in Earth’s history, and the market is massive, and Smartmatic was built to seize it, and they’ve spent the last four years dealing with a coordinated and orchestrated smear campaign,” he told the newspaper. “They could be a $400 million company right now if not for the slander and the smears.”
The network will likely seek to explore those comments in relation to the $2.7 billion in damages Smartmatic claims in their defamation lawsuit over false “conspiracy theories” about rigging the 2020 election which were allegedly reported by the network.
On Thursday, Fox News lawyer Winn Allen told the court that Mehlhorn’s comments show Smartmatic “grossly inflated” the damages they are seeking, according to Courthouse News.
The network argued Hoffman could help their defense since one issue is the valuation of the company prior to the alleged defamation. Allen reportedly said his clients prioritized Hoffman’s deposition because “he’s the one who put his money on the line for this company.”
Cohen was not convinced.
The judge ruled that Mehlhorn would be appropriate to depose because he was the one who commented on the investment to the media.
The deposition will be limited to two hours; the network will only be able to ask questions about communications and discussions Mehlhorn and Hoffman had with Mugica prior to the investment.
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In a statement, Fox News referenced the August 2024 indictment of other current and former Smartmatic executives. That criminal case, however, cannot factor into the civil trial, Cohen previously ruled.
“The evidence shows that Smartmatic’s business and reputation were badly suffering long before any claims by President Trump’s lawyers on FOX News and that Smartmatic grossly inflated its damage claims to generate headlines and chill free speech,” the network told Law&Crime. “Now, in the aftermath of Smartmatic’s executives getting indicted for bribery charges, we are eager and ready to continue defending our press freedoms and look forward to deposing Dmitri Mehlhorn.”
Law&Crime also reached out to a representative for Smartmatic, but no response was immediately forthcoming at the time of publication.
