Fox News can put Smartmatic on the defensive over whether the voting machine company's $2.7 billion lawsuit over the network's coverage of the 2020 election is designed to chill its speech, a New York judge ruled on Wednesday.

Last April, Fox entered into a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, avoiding a trial on whether the network knowingly spread false conspiracy theories about President Donald Trump's defeat to appease viewers. But Fox potentially faces billions more in liabilities from Smartmatic's lawsuit, filed in Manhattan in 2021.

Taking advantage of New York's broad journalistic protections, Fox hit back at Smartmatic with a countersuit under the state's anti-SLAPP statute, short for "Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation" and designed to prevent litigation designed to chill free speech. Smartmatic argued that the success of Dominion's lawsuit proved the merit of their own lawsuit, but Fox contends that Smartmatic's enormous damages demand has no basis in fact.

In a seven-page ruling, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice David Cohen wrote there has yet to be a ruling on whether Smartmatic’s claims have a substantial factual basis.

The Messenger

From Trump Docs Case thread I'm currently writing:

Why would DOJ and NARA make reference to the "Nunes Memo" if this whole thing was not about the damn Crossfire Hurricane Binder that Trump declassified on Jan 19, 2021?

https://twitter.com/realjusthuman/status/1750539357729984806

iPhone Apps Secretly Harvest Data When They Send You Notifications

Security researchers say apps including Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, and countless other use notifications as a loophole to skirt privacy protections.

🔗 Link

NEW - Washington Post's "disinformation czar" Taylor Lorenz:

"Pretty much the entire digital media ecosystem that myself and a lot of other millennial journalists came up in has been completely hollowed out."

@disclosetv

I think the FBI purposefully failed to SEARCH THE MAL SCIF.

https://twitter.com/realjusthuman/status/1750558314939723967

The fact the establishment is attempting to bribe Kari Lake into leaving politics is all the endorsement she needs. This proves she is over the target. Listen to what she had to say in response.🔥🔥

"You can't buy me. I wouldn't take a million. I wouldn't take ten million. I wouldn't take 20 million. I wouldn't take a billion dollars. Our country is on the line right now. The future of our country. Our children's future is on the line right now. We've got to stop being ruled by the Almighty dollar....
Washington DC is afraid of people who will stand up for We the People. And that's why they are always constantly going after President Trump. He's a threat to Washington DC, he's a threat to the corrupt system. ..
The people need to know what is happening in politics and government. We need to clean this mess up. It is a filthy dirty swamp. It's not just in DC. It is in state capitols across the country. The people are weary and tired and they want some straight shooters and ethical people to represent them...
I don't care if that corruption is on the left or the right, we've got to root this out... For someone try to bribe me, it's almost laughable. I walked away from my career, a seven figure contract, because I didn't want to do propaganda, because that's what the news has become."
Retweet

BREAKING: Former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro was sentenced to four months in prison Thursday for criminal contempt of Congress, with federal prosecutors saying he “thumbed his nose” at the House committee investigating Jan. 6.

NBC News

By winning 98 of 99 counties in Iowa and winning New Hampshire even though over half of the voters were not Republican, Trump is really losing.

Figure that one out 😂

Donald Trump isn't a God King. He's a symbol of what has been taken from us.

So, my message to the Con Inc. Doom Brigade is simple:

It's not over until we say it's over.

Biden plans to dispatch CIA Director William J. Burns in the coming days to help broker an ambitious deal between Hamas and Israel that would involve the release of all remaining hostages held in Gaza and the longest cessation of hostilities since the war began last year, according to officials familiar with the matter.

Burns is expected to travel to Europe for the talks and meet with the Israeli and Egyptian intelligence chiefs, David Barnea and Abbas Kamel, and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, these people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations. The planned gathering has not been previously reported.

Burns’s discussions in Europe are expected to build on his phone conversations with counterparts, as well as the work of the White House’s top Middle East official, Brett McGurk, who this week has held related meetings in Qatar’s capital, Doha and in Cairo

The Washington Post

What? 🥴

https://t.me/disclosetv/13134

The RNC is considering making President Trump the presumptive nominee!!

If that happens, Nikki Haley will be BIG MAD!!😂
https://t.me/realKarliBonne/221501

U.S. antitrust enforcers are opening an investigation into the relationships between leading artificial intelligence startups such as ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Anthropic and the tech giants that have invested billions of dollars into them.

The action targets Amazon, Google and Microsoft and their sway over the generative AI boom that’s fueled demand for chatbots such as ChatGPT, and other AI tools that can produce novel imagery and sound.

AP News

President Donald Trump on Thursday joined an effort by a co-defendant in his Georgia election interference case to disqualify prosecutor Fani Willis, according to a court filing.

Trump co-defendant Michael Roman has alleged in previous court filings that Willis had an inappropriate relationship with Nathan Wade, the lawyer she hired to help run the criminal case.

Trump's defense team endorsed those claims and leveled new accusations that Willis "inappropriately injected race into the case and stoked racial animus" during a speech responding to Roman's allegations.

Reuters

NEW - Fani Willis accused a Fulton County Board Commissioner of being racist when she asked about Nathan Wade.

"The allegations are frightening."

"When I asked her about the Nathan Wade expenditures, I was told that I was just picking on him because he's black."

"I've never met him, and I have nothing against him. The taxpayers need some clarity on that if we are going to provide her a larger budget."

When Commissioner @thornbrid asked @FaniforDA to provide transparency on the cost of the case to taxpayers, Fani Willis responded:

"Lady Justice has no price."

"As Commissioners, we need to know how much this is costing us."

H/T to @MarcoPolo501c3 for flagging this testimony from the Fulton County Board of Commissioners hearing.

https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1750617588043010164

@KanekoaTheGreat

What LA Times newsroom looks like after their layoffs.

Such a glorious sight to see.