NEW YORK (AP) Newsmax apologized on Friday for airing false allegations that an employee for Dominion Voting Systems manipulated machines or tallies on Election Day to the detriment of former President Donald Trump.
Eric Coomer, security director at the Colorado-based firm, in turn dropped Newsmax from a defamation lawsuit.
The conservative news network, in a statement published on its website and to be read on TV, said that while it aired the accusations against Coomer made by Trump's lawyers and supporters, it found no evidence that they were true.
Newsmax, which ran Dominion's denials of the accusations when they were made, also said it had found no evidence that Coomer had spoken to Antifa or any partisan organization.
We would like to apologize for any harm that our reporting of the allegations against Dr. Coomer may have caused to Dr. Coomer and his family, the network said. He said in his lawsuit that he had gone into hiding because of death threats.
Coomer's lawsuit also targets the Trump campaign, lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, columnist Michelle Malkin, the website Gateway Pundit, Colorado activist Joseph Oltmann and One America News Network. Those claims are continuing, a spokeswoman said.
Neither Newsmax nor a Coomer spokeswoman would comment on whether Coomer was paid anything to drop the company from his lawsuit.
Newsmax also told its audience, many of them Trump supporters that many of the states whose results were contested by the Trump campaign after the November 2020 election have conducted extensive recounts and audits, and each of these states certified the results as legal and final.