A New York appeals court granted Fox News additional discovery on Thursday in a case brought by voting machine maker Smartmatic, giving the defense more time to prepare for a trial.
The order, issued by the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court, allows the outlet to consider the impact of the federal criminal proceedings against Smartmatic and its executives as they relate to the court case.
“We are pleased with the court’s decision to grant our request to conduct discovery into the impact on Smartmatic’s business of its indictment and allegations in the criminal case involving Smartmatic’s business activities in Los Angeles County,” Fox News Media said.
In October 2025, the Justice Department announced Smartmatic was charged with conspiring to bribe foreign officials and money laundering to allegedly win business in the Philippines. A federal grand jury returned the superseding indictment, which already charged three Smartmatic executives and a Filipino election official back in August 2024.
The amended charging document was of interest to the appeals court, leading to its ruling in favor of Fox News.
“The filing of the superseding indictment, which added Smartmatic as a defendant, was both an unusual and unanticipated circumstance, and defendants would be substantially prejudiced by the disallowance of discovery with respect to the impact of the superseding indictment,” the order reads.
Smartmatic’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News stems from voter fraud allegations related to the 2020 election that the network spread on air. The voting machine company claims the allegations irreparably harmed its business, but the network argues Smartmatic may have lost money because of its own legal troubles rather than broadcasts about widespread voter fraud.
The court is allowing relevant allegations against Smartmatic in Venezuela and Los Angeles to be taken into account for discovery purposes in the case.
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“The notice added new substantive allegations about conduct that occurred in both of those jurisdictions, and thus defendants would be substantially prejudiced by preventing discovery into the impact of those allegations on Smartmatic,” the appeals court wrote.
Smartmatic first sued Fox News for $2.7 billion in 2021. The case remains unresolved years later. The plaintiff won $40 million from Newsmax as part of a settlement last year. In a similar case involving Dominion Voting Systems, Fox paid over $787 million to settle that lawsuit in 2023.