'Explosive e-mail' reveals OAN 'may have engaged in criminal activities' with Smartmatic data

Fox News, Newsmax and One America News (OAN) have all faced civil defamation lawsuits from Dominion Voting Systems after promoting the false claim that Dominion's voting equipment was used to help now-President Joe Biden steal the 2020 election from then-President Donald Trump. And Fox News, after agreeing to a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion in 2023, is still up against a $2.7 billion civil defamation lawsuit from Dominion competitor Smartmatic.

"Civil" is the operative word in those lawsuits, none of which involve criminal charges.

But according to CNN's Marshall Cohen, lawyers for Smartmatic are alleging that OAN "may have engaged in criminal activities" following the 2020 election.

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"In the wake of the 2020 election," Cohen explains, "the president of the far-right network One America News sent a potentially explosive e-mail to former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell, with a spreadsheet claiming to contain passwords of employees from the voting technology company Smartmatic, according to court filings. The existence of the spreadsheet was recently disclosed by Smartmatic, which is suing OAN for defamation."

Cohen continues, "CNN pieced together who was involved in the e-mail exchanges by examining court records from three separate cases stemming from the 2020 election. Lawyers from Smartmatic told a federal judge that the e-mail, and the attached spreadsheet, suggest OAN executives 'may have engaged in criminal activities' because they 'appear to have violated state and federal laws regarding data privacy."

According to Cohen, court records "don't say how OAN obtained the spreadsheet, or whether the supposed Smartmatic passwords were authentic."

Cohen reports, "Nobody from OAN has been charged with any crimes.… According to court filings, the supposed passwords were shared around the same time that Powell, her associates and other Trump supporters were trying to improperly access voting systems across the country, to prove their false claims of voter fraud. The January 8, 2021, e-mail exchange between OAN President Charles Herring and Powell has recently emerged as a flashpoint in Smartmatic's defamation lawsuit against the pro-Trump network."

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CNN's full report is available at this link.