Tag: Department of Justice

The Special Master appointed by the Delaware Superior Court has ruled against voting systems purveyor Smartmatic which was seeking sanctions against Newsmax alleging that CEO Christopher Ruddy and other staffers destroyed evidence. The Special Master ruled that Smartmatic failed to prove that Ruddy and others intentionally or recklessly destroyed evidence in the case. Newsmax says that it informed the Special Master that some of Ruddy’s text messages were accidentally not preserved on his mobile phone, but he located another device that had many if not all of the text messages. Those messages were produced to Smartmatic in the litigation. Newsmax also notes that it informed the Special Master that neither Ruddy nor any senior staff sought to hide text messages or emails, which in many cases were also collected from dozens of other Newsmax witnesses in the case and produced to Smartmatic. Newsmax separately filed a Motion for Sanctions against Smartmatic on May 13, 2024, and a Motion for Contempt against Smartmatic on July 16, 2024. Both of those motions remain pending. In its motions Newsmax argues that Smartmatic and its executives have misled Newsmax, the Special Master, and the Court about the Department of Justice’s ongoing criminal investigation into Smartmatic in which the agency alleges that Smartmatic and several of its senior executives participated in an international scheme involving a multi-million-dollar bribe allegedly made to an election official in the Philippines in exchange for the company getting nearly $200 million in contracts. See the full (somewhat redacted) complaint here.