Smartmatic Wants to Air Rupert Murdoch’s Dirty Succession Laundry

The Murdoch family, which owns Fox News, The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, and several other conservative media outlets, could soon have the details of their internal succession battle exposed to the public.

The voting machine company Smartmatic, which sued Fox News for defamation over false claims about the company committing election fraud during the 2020 election, is trying to gain access to evidence from the battle over 93-year-old patriarch Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, CNN reports.

In Nevada probate court earlier this year, members of the Murdoch family secretly fought over who gets to inherit the many properties Rupert owns. The original plan was to have the eldest Murdoch hand off control of the media properties to his three children in a power-sharing agreement, but Rupert sought to change the trust to give his oldest, most conservative son Lachlan control of the Fox Corporation.

That attempt was rejected by a probate commissioner, who criticized Lachlan and Rupert for acting in “bad faith” in their attempts to change the family trust and attacked Rupert for proposing a “carefully crafted charade.” The commissioner noted that Rupert’s representatives “demonstrated a dishonesty of purpose and motive.” Lachlan and Rupert can appeal the decision, which was sealed but obtained by The New York Times earlier this month.

An anonymous source told CNN that Smartmatic thinks testimony in the Nevada battle contradicts Fox’s claim in the defamation lawsuit’s proceedings that who controls the company doesn’t affect Fox News’s editorial direction. According to the source, Rupert claimed in Nevada that Lachlan has to take over after him in order to continue Fox News’s right-wing stances. An outside party to the Nevada case filed a motion just last week, though the records are still sealed.

Smartmatic’s lawsuit is being aided by billionaire Reid Hoffman, who has invested in the company to help fund its legal expenses. The trial is set to begin next year in New York, barring an out-of-court settlement, and Smartmatic’s attempt to gain access to the Nevada records is part of the discovery process in the defamation case.

In April 2023, Fox News settled a similar defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million. It remains to be seen if Smartmatic’s case will be resolved in the same way, or if the conservative news network will be dragged into public court proceedings next year.