According to new court records, the far-right TV network One America News and one of its on-air personalities settled a defamation case brought by a former executive of Dominion Voting Systems, the voting technology company unjustly accused of rigging the 2020 election.
Eric Coomer, Dominion’s former top security official, sued OAN and its correspondent Chanel Rion after they repeatedly peddled unfounded claims that he and Dominion were involved in massive election fraud in 2020 by switching millions of votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden.
The terms of the out-of-court settlement, disclosed in a court document, were not immediately available. The filing stated that OAN and Rion “have fully and finally settled the disputes” with Coomer, but provided no other information. According to court papers, the agreement was reached late last week.
OAN’s spokeswoman and attorney did not reply immediately to CNN’s requests for comment. Coomer’s lawyer refused to comment.
According to the recent court filing, other defendants in the action, including Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell, have not struck a settlement and are still active defendants in the case.
By reaching an agreement with Coomer, OAN is resolving one of numerous pending cases related to the 2020 presidential election, which might have serious financial ramifications for the little network.
Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, voting technology companies that OAN falsely claimed stole the election against Trump, have filed defamation claims against the conspiracy-peddling channel. Those claims are still in the discovery phase, and unless a settlement is reached, the litigation is projected to last well into next year.
Rion has been at the heart of the network’s pro-Trump propaganda as a correspondent, and she produced a special dubbed “Dominion-izing the Vote,” which propagated baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election results.
Coomer’s Colorado-based litigation compelled numerous top Trump associates to take depositions over their phony fraud accusations. Excerpts made public show how little due diligence these Trump backers performed before spreading the claims on social media and on television, particularly on OAN and Fox News.
Dominion, Smartmatic, and Coomer have gone from being relatively unknown characters to important protagonists in the fight to hold Trump accountable for his electoral falsehoods in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
However, the lengthy litigation has uncovered some disparaging statements Coomer made about Dominion privately, including a 2019 email in which he claimed “our products suck” and a message sent weeks before the 2020 election in which he said the company’s software was “riddled with bugs.”
Dominion famously settled with Fox News for $787 million earlier last year after suing the right-wing network over similar election-related claims.
