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Smartmatic indicted in foreign bribery case, possibly endangering its lawsuits against Fox News and Giuliani

<i>Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AP via CNN Newsource</i><br/>A Smartmatic representative demonstrates the company's voting system.

By CNN Newsource

Published October 17, 2025 9:48 am

By Marshall Cohen, CNN

Washington (CNN) — The Justice Department on Thursday filed foreign bribery charges against Smartmatic, the voting technology company that is suing Fox News and other prominent pro-Trump figures for defamation over their promotion of 2020 election lies.

The bribery and money laundering charges against Smartmatic arose from an existing case filed last year against some of its current and former executives, including its founder.

The indictment relates to an alleged $1 million bribe paid to the top election official in the Philippines to secure lucrative contracts for that country’s 2016 elections. The indictment doesn’t include any allegations of voter fraud or election-rigging against Smartmatic.

The news could be catastrophic for Smartmatic, potentially weakening its hand in pending 2020 election-related defamation lawsuits against Fox News, the Fox News host turned US attorney Jeanine Pirro, ex-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.

The charges could undermine Smartmatic’s arguments that its reputation has been damaged solely by these pro-Trump figures and their brazen lies about the 2020 election.

“This is more of the same. A photocopy of the previous spurious indictment,” Smartmatic said in a statement on Thursday, denying wrongdoing and vowing to fight the case.

The company further said, “We believe the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida has been misled and politically influenced by powerful interests, despite our extensive cooperation with the government. This is again, targeted, political, and unjust.”

It’s unclear what meddling Smartmatic is referring to. President Donald Trump has successfully pushed in recent weeks to prosecute his opponents, but the underlying case against Smartmatic executives was brought by the Biden-era Justice Department, and career prosecutors endorsed Thursday’s new indictment, according to court filings.

Smartmatic’s co-defendants previously pleaded not guilty.

The defamation cases

The company’s machines are popular overseas, but in US elections, they are only used in Los Angeles. CNN has reached out to the city’s election officials seeking comment.

After President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, he and his allies spread the false claim that Smartmatic technology flipped millions of votes to rob him of a victory.

Smartmatic filed defamation lawsuits in 2021 against these figures, and other right-wing media outlets, seeking billions of dollars in damages. The company settled with Newsmax last year for $40 million and settled with One America News for an undisclosed amount.

All of these pro-Trump outlets and figures deny wrongdoing.

The Philippines scandal — which CNN first revealed in 2023 — has provided a major boost to these pro-Trump figures facing defamation lawsuits. They have sought additional documents about the criminal probe, hoping these will weaken damages claims from Smartmatic, and they’ve argued that the indictment proves Smartmatic’s shady practices.

“Smartmatic was and is a failing company: its continued cozy relationship with dictators, a decade of mismanagement and poor performance, and criminal bribery charges against its highest echelon of leaders,” Fox News wrote in a court filing earlier this year.