By Marshall Cohen | CNN
Trump allies Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon have been subpoenaed by Smartmatic as part of the voting technology company’s massive defamation lawsuits against Fox News and Newsmax over their promotion of 2020 election lies.
Court filings made public last week in New York and Delaware indicate that Flynn and Bannon were hit with subpoenas, demanding that they sit for depositions and answer questions under oath. The depositions were initially scheduled for this week, though timing can change based on negotiations and other developments in the lawsuits.
Bannon is also required to turn over subpoenaed documents to Smartmatic, including any communications with top officials from Fox News, the Trump campaign, and the Trump administration about the 2020 presidential election, according to court filings.
CNN has reached out to attorneys for Flynn and Bannon.
Smartmatic’s lawsuits against Fox News and Newsmax are part of a constellation of pending defamation cases stemming from 2020, when former President Donald Trump and many of his Republican allies falsely claimed that the Florida-based company and other entities rigged the election against him. Smartmatic is seeking $2.7 billion from Fox and an unspecified amount from Newsmax for disseminating a “continuous stream of falsehoods that harmed Smartmatic and negatively impacted the company’s business,” it said.
The most prominent of these blockbuster defamation cases – Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against Fox News – ended earlier this year with a historic $787 million settlement.
Fox News and Newsmax deny wrongdoing and are fighting the lawsuits.
Both Flynn and Bannon played a key role in Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Bannon urged supporters to flock to Washington, DC, to protest Congress’ certification of the Electoral College on January 6, 2021. Flynn directly encouraged Trump to use the military to seize voting machines, and he has also been linked to the efforts by Trump supporters to breach voting systems in key states.
The two Trump allies have also seen their own fair share of legal troubles.
Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts, though the Trump-era Justice Department later dropped the charges, and Trump pardoned him before leaving office. Bannon was federally indicted in a fraud scheme in 2020, through Trump pardoned him before trial. He was convicted last year of contempt of Congress, for stonewalling the House committee that investigated the January 6 insurrection.