CNN —An alleged bribery scheme in the Philippines has thrown a potential lifeline to Fox News and other right-wing media outlets that are battling massive defamation lawsuits from the voting technology company Smartmatic for their promotion of 2020 election lies. The overseas scandal washed ashore last year when the Justice Department charged the Philippines’ former election commissioner with money laundering. Since then, Fox News, Newsmax and OAN have seized on the allegations, attempting to obtain new documents about potential wrongdoing by Smartmatic that could boost their defense. None of the allegations levied by US prosecutors in court filings pertain to vote-flipping or alleged rigging of election results. Last year, Fox paid a historic $787 million settlement with another election technology company, Dominion Voting Systems, for its promotion of similar election lies.

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Persons: CNN —, Smartmatic, Newsmax, Donald Trump, Andres Bautista, Bautista, Fox, Nicolas Maduro, —, Smartmatic “, ”, Trump, “ Smartmatic, ” OAN, Eric Davis, OAN, “, OAN –, ” Smartmatic, hasn’t Organizations: CNN, Fox News, Justice Department, Trump, OAN, Philippine, Smartmatic, Fox, Dominion Voting, Lawyers Locations: Philippines, California, Venezuela, Manila, Smartmatic, Miami, Delaware, Brazil, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Kenya, Oman, Switzerland, Taiwan