“Fox News’ contention that the claims against it must be dismissed because plaintiffs failed to plead that the network itself made any specific defamatory statements about SUSA is without merit,” Cohen said. “At this nascent stage of the litigation, this Court finds that plaintiffs have pleaded facts sufficient to allow a jury to infer that Fox News acted with actual malice since it conceivably had a ‘high degree of awareness of falsity’ or ‘serious doubts as to the truth’ of the statements made.”

The court denied a motion to dismiss defamation claims against Fox host Maria Bartiromo and former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs. Cohen tossed out claims against Rudy Giuliani, former President Donald Trump’s onetime personal lawyer, but allowed the plaintiffs to replead within 21 days, citing technicalities in the overall claims against him.

Smartmatic, a company that produces electronic voting systems, filed a lawsuit against Fox News and several of its personalities last year, accusing the defendants of damaging the company’s reputation relating to election fraud claims in 2020. They cited guests who appeared on the network and pushed narratives that the company secretly switched votes from former President Donald Trump to Joe Biden, the eventual winner. In its lawsuit, the company alleges that it emailed Fox News producers about misinformation that had been presented on TV and that the network did not relay that information to its viewers.

Fox News first moved to dismiss the lawsuit shortly after it was filed. In a new statement to the Washington Examiner, a spokesperson for Fox News vowed to fight back against the lawsuit.

“While we are gratified that Judge Cohen dismissed Smartmatic’s claims against Jeanine Pirro at this early stage, we still plan to appeal the ruling immediately. We will also continue to litigate these baseless claims by filing a counterclaim for fees and costs under New York’s anti-SLAPP statute to prevent the full-blown assault on the First Amendment, which stands in stark contrast to the highest tradition of American journalism,” the spokesperson said.

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In addition to targeting Fox News, Smartmatic filed defamation lawsuits against Newsmax and OAN for defamation, claiming that they, too, presented false narratives about the company rigging the 2020 election.

Fox News is also being sued by Dominion Voting Systems for defamation over its 2020 election coverage. The network sought to dismiss the $1.6 billion lawsuit, but a judge rejected that request last year.