To fight a smear based mostly on lies, the CEO of the voting machine agency Smartmatic could need to lean into a very totally different set of ugly tales — involving alleged company bribery, ties to a overseas strongman and his personal position in a threesome hookup app referred to as Feeld.
Antonio Mugica, whose agency was slimed by unfounded far-right conspiracy theories a few stolen 2020 election, made a confidential settlement final week in his defamation swimsuit in opposition to Newsmax, months after scoring one other confidential settlement in a continuing in opposition to OAN. However he’s due in court docket early subsequent 12 months for a case in opposition to the most important conservative community of all: Fox Information, which Smartmatic is suing for $2.7 billion over alleged false claims associated to former President Donald Trump’s loss.
And that matter continues to be being fought over — particularly within the court docket of public opinion.
The truth is, no sooner had the Newsmax settlement been introduced final Thursday than Fox’s PR operation was out with an announcement seemingly unrelated to the query of whether or not or not the voting-machine firm was defamed in 2020: “Smartmatic’s President and Co-Founder, in addition to one present and one former govt, have been federally indicted for bribery” involving a Philippine authorities contract.
It wasn’t so totally different from the communications technique deployed by Newsmax proper up till they settled: Speak quite a bit about issues which have little to do with 2020. Days earlier, the pro-Trump community had put out an announcement slamming Mugica’s agency as “the popular election firm for Venezuela’s brutal Chavez/Maduro regime” and sniffing that the court docket ought to by no means have allowed “an organization with such a sordid repute to pursue a defamation declare in opposition to a media firm.”
You possibly can count on to listen to much more like that — and past — as Fox and Smartmatic gird for battle.
That’s as a result of the factor about defamation fits is that they’re premised on the concept the plaintiff truly has an excellent title that may be besmirched. And that premise, in flip, encourages unfriendly events to air soiled laundry forward of trial.
Mugica’s PR workforce is aware of this, which is definitely how I discovered myself speaking to him final month not nearly election sanctity, however about cringier topics he’d fairly keep away from: That bribery case; these alleged ties to his nation’s autocratic late president Hugo Chavez; and Mugica’s private views on sexual monogamy and what they need to do together with his courting app investments, amongst different issues.
On paper, they appear awfully far afield from the query of whether or not a information group devastated Mugica’s enterprise by way of defamatory lies in regards to the 2020 U.S. election. In the actual world, it’s a distinct story.
Lately, a political trial can look quite a bit like a political marketing campaign, full with communications professionals, oppo analysis and gobs of {dollars}. Sources acquainted with the case in opposition to Fox say it may value Smartmatic upwards of $100 million (a determine that the undisclosed latest settlements could assist attain). Provided that Dominion Voting Programs scored an almost $1 billion settlement from Fox Information in an identical case final 12 months, that would show an excellent funding.
“The enterprise of energy is messy,” Mugica mentioned. “Politics is messy. It’s positively an excessive sport. And sadly for us, we’re in the midst of it.”
And to win at this explicit excessive sport, he figures, it’s time to begin speaking about a few of the muck prone to come his method because the trial nears.
Not like the allegations that Smartmatic rigged the 2020 elections, these tales aren’t all make-believe. Mugica’s agency actually did deal with elections in Venezuela, his house nation in addition to that of his Smartmatic co-founders. One was a controversial recall election that Chavez received. “There are one million causes to criticize President Chavez,” Mugica mentioned. “I believe for me, the most important one is, he destroyed the nation. However one factor that he didn’t do is he didn’t tamper with these outcomes.”
Then again, when the opposition boycotted a nationwide meeting election below successor Nicolás Maduro — permitting the brand new president’s allies to run primarily unopposed — Mugica blew the whistle on the regime’s manipulation of voter turnout numbers. “And, in fact, instantly we have been politically persecuted in a foreign country,” Mugica mentioned, noting that the agency moved dozens of native staff out. “I’ve by no means been capable of return to Venezuela.”
For good measure, Mugica additionally mentioned the regime stiffed Smartmatic on $100 million in funds and expropriated its native enterprise. It’s a historical past that, his workforce thinks, makes it fairly robust for opponents to forged him as a hatchet man for the dictatorship. Or possibly not: The Venezuela questions are all around the briefs Fox has filed within the case.
The Philippine indictments, which earned important press this summer time, are additionally prone to get an encore in the course of the trial. In accordance with federal prosecutors, three high Smartmatic executives, together with president and co-founder Roger Pinate, violated the U.S. International Corrupt Practices Act by conspiring to funnel $1 million to the pinnacle of the nation’s election fee to be able to snag a profitable elections contract.
The corporate wasn’t indicted, and the alleged crime didn’t contain tampering with elections. However the entire thing nonetheless appears to be like sleazy — in simply the way in which you’d need if you happen to’re a protection lawyer who must beat again Smartmatic’s claims that its repute was broken.
Right here, Mugica spoke cautiously. “I’m not conscious of that being true,” he mentioned of the alleged bribe. “I’m very assured that my executives are going to clear their names.” He was much less circumspect when it got here to some issues he thinks are fishy in regards to the case, beginning with the dimensions of the alleged bribe (“form of a very small quantity in comparison with what they normally prosecute, which is tons of of thousands and thousands or billions of {dollars}”) and the long-ago timing (the contract in query was for a 2016 election) in addition to the context (he says it includes a longstanding vendetta in opposition to the election commissioner on the a part of the incumbent Philippine president). The case has but to go to court docket.
However while you’re speaking about one thing as fuzzy as an organization’s repute, the supposed shortcomings of a federal indictment solely matter a lot to most people.
Ditto the ostensibly unrelated elements of the boss’ funding portfolio and private life.
Take Feeld, the courting app for “polyamory, consensual non-monogamy, homo- and heteroflexibility, pansexuality, asexuality, aromanticism, voyeurism, and kink,” in keeping with its web site. Mugica is a high investor within the service, which he praises as a female-led firm that’s filling a necessity in a little-noticed neighborhood that occurs to be a part of his personal life.
“I’ve at all times been extra of an open-relationship kind of individual,” Mugica, a separated father of two, advised me. “That’s one of many causes the couple that based this firm got here to me, and I believed, look, there’s a large market of those who have extra of an open thoughts about this stuff. … And it proved to be proper,” as a result of the app is rising quickly.
To date, Mugica’s involvement in Feeld hasn’t been a part of any pretrial publicity marketing campaign. He suspects that received’t be true for lengthy. One odd coincidence that may complicate efforts to tar him by affiliation: One of many highest-profile mentions of Feeld in U.S. media was a rapturous 2021 Self-importance Truthful merchandise headlined “Three-Method Intercourse With {Couples} Has Made Me a Higher Particular person.” The creator was Caroline Rose Giuliani, whose father Rudy can also be a spotlight of Smartmatic’s defamation actions. (The youthful Giuliani this week endorsed Kamala Harris.)
“It’s been very robust as a result of I’m operating the enterprise on the similar time that I have to handle the litigation in opposition to Fox and Newsmax,” Mugica advised me. “What I inform my associates is, it’s not the authorized battle, which I believe I’ve a superb workforce of attorneys, however it’s extra the invisible battle that occurs below the desk, folks making an attempt to convey you down. … These are the issues which have actually taken the battle to a distinct stage.”
Mugica mentioned he hasn’t resorted to elevating cash particularly for the litigation. However Smartmatic just lately took in a multimillion-dollar funding from Reid Hoffman, the billionaire LinkedIn founder and Democratic donor. On the time, a Hoffman advisor advised reporters that the funding was an excellent enterprise alternative however that it additionally was a method “to supply capital that might enable the reality to be discovered within the courts.”
One of many ironies of the entire affair is that London-based Smartmatic by no means did a lot American enterprise. In 2020, its solely U.S. contract was in Los Angeles County, removed from the states the place Donald Trump’s supporters claimed fraud. However, Mugica mentioned, America’s prominence meant the disinformation had “obliterated” his enterprise, which simply had its worst income 12 months in 21 years.
“To take the most important firm within the election expertise area that has by no means had a breach in 25 years, and to say they rigged the U.S. election is devastating,” Mugica mentioned, claiming the falsehoods dried up scores of alternatives after the agency had invested thousands and thousands in development. “I believe that lie was truly devastating not just for our firm. It was devastating for the business as a complete. So many nations that wished to convey expertise into their elections mentioned, ‘We do not need to be in that state of affairs.’”
In its grievance, Smartmatic is demanding an enormous $2.7 billion for financial and reputational damages. It’s also asking the court docket to hit Fox with punitive damages, which may theoretically bump up the award to a devastating $5.4 billion (double) or $8.1 billion (triple). There’s no cap on punitive damages in New York.
I wouldn’t go spending these additional billions simply but: Earlier than the Newsmax matter settled, the decide in that case had dominated out punitive damages, saying the community hadn’t got down to hurt Smartmatic even because it aired false statements. The Fox case, in fact, includes a distinct firm and a distinct jurisdiction.
Fox has denied defaming anybody and says free speech might be broken by a lawsuit in opposition to a information group that was merely reporting on allegations. “Smartmatic’s damages claims are implausible, disconnected from actuality, and on their face supposed to relax First Modification freedoms,” the corporate declared.
Mugica, who lived for a decade within the U.S., has household right here and nonetheless visits continuously, together with latest journeys to prep for trial. In a dialog, he sounded assured in regards to the American authorized system.
All the identical, the fallout from 2020 has added a way of hazard to the US, too, one thing Mugica by no means anticipated to see. Election deniers wielding megaphones shouted exterior Smartmatic’s U.S. places of work. Nameless messages and emails threatened rank-and-file staff. “Location acquired … right here we come,” learn one. The corporate’s Los Angeles workplace acquired a package deal within the mail that includes photographs of mangled human stays. “The 14-year-old son of my co-founder acquired a name saying, ‘We’re going to kill you and your loved ones for what you have got completed,’” Mugica advised me.
I requested Mugica, whose agency works elections world wide, to match America to different nations he’s watched. No matter you consider Fox Information’ culpability for the falsehoods of 2020, his reply ought to offer you pause.
“We’ve participated in elections in, I believe, 37 nations, a lot of them within the creating world — immature democracies, or no matter you need to name them,” he mentioned. “Like Venezuela, which isn’t a democracy anymore. Or the Philippines or Kenya, locations which might be positively at a distinct stage of their democracies and of their socioeconomic growth. And I believe what’s been occurring within the U.S. just lately, and extra particularly with the final election, was form of a regression into that stage. So the U.S. has principally behaved as if it was every other creating nation on the political entrance.”