Smartmatic, a voting technology company that supplied machines in the 2020 election, said in a new court filing that it is being unlawfully targeted by the Justice Department under President Donald Trump for undermining the president's false attacks on the integrity of the race.
Smartmatic's parent company was charged in a Florida federal court in October with conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by bribing a Philippine government official to get business, and with conspiring to launder money. Those charges against the company were added to a case initially brought against some of its former executives in 2024, during President Joe Biden's term.
That timeline is a key part of the argument Smartmatic laid out in its March 10 filing, which is asking the court to dismiss the charges as amounting to unlawfully vindictive against the company.
"President Trump has openly waged a campaign of retribution against his perceived enemies—chief among them those who undermine his mantra that the 2020 election was rigged—and demanded the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) take up the sword," the company said in its filing.
"(T)he only consequential changes in this case since 2024 were the President, his DOJ, and their well-documented crusade to unconstitutionally target their perceived political enemies, like Smartmatic," the company added.
