“[I]t now seems irrefutable that” voting technology company Smartmatic gave unlawful gifts to the Los Angeles County official who helped obtain the firm’s “lucrative contract” with the county, a new filing by Fox News alleges. Fox also argues a recent filing from the DOJ indicates that executives at Smartmatic, which is currently involved in a defamation lawsuit against Fox News over the latter’s reporting on the 2020 election, “funneled” L.A. County tax dollars to a “slush fund.”
Fox News is seeking “public records relating to the relationship between certain L.A. County officials and the election systems company Smartmatic,” according to a recent filing. The company also seeks information pertaining to the process by which Smartmatic was awarded a contract that permitted them to “build voting equipment for” and run the Los Angeles’ state, federal, and local elections.
“Since Fox News filed its original petition, subsequent productions by L.A. County and recent U.S. Department of Justice … filings have revealed stark indications that Smartmatic’s most senior executives engaged in some of the same patterns of misconduct in Smartmatic’s contracting with L.A. County as they have been accused of elsewhere,” the filing reads.
Fox’s “amended petition” asks the California Superior Court for the County of Los Angeles to direct the county, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (collectively referred to as the “County”) to comply with California public records law.
Fox News states that it previously uncovered evidence showing Smartmatic provided Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder and Clerk Dean Logan with “business class travel, expensive entertainment, and other personal benefits” that Logan “had not disclosed as required by law.” County documents later revealed, as described in Fox News’ filing, “Mr. Logan cultivated unusually close relationships with Smartmatic executives through frequent communication, dinners, and other social gatherings, several of which included a spouse and/or partner.”
But, as Fox News alleges, the county still produced “incomplete” records and “omitted many responsive documents.” Fox News suggests that “much of this underproduction” occurred because “the county is reliant” on Logan “to provide the responsive records.”
Hellbound and Down 