Newsmax’s post-2020 election strategy is getting brutally expensive. After years of amplifying false claims about voting machines, the conservative outlet is now staring at a combined $107 million bill to make two defamation cases go away.

The latest hit is Dominion: Newsmax “will pay $67 million to settle Dominion voting machine lawsuit.”¹ That follows an earlier $40 million settlement with Smartmatic, meaning the network’s election-fraud coverage has hardened into a major financial liability rather than just a political posture.²

The two cases came from the same core allegation. Dominion sued after Newsmax pushed false claims that the 2020 election was “rigged,” while Smartmatic accused the network of spreading lies that its machines helped Joe Biden win.¹² Different company, same underlying problem: election misinformation moved from the screen to the balance sheet.

There is a slight split in posture, at least on paper. The Dominion payment reads like a clean acknowledgment of the cost of prior programming, while in the Smartmatic matter Newsmax had previously signaled it was still fighting on multiple fronts even as it cut checks to resolve one case. But the broad direction is unmistakable. What began as audience-friendly 2020 rhetoric has produced settlement after settlement, and the numbers are no longer small.

That matters beyond Newsmax. These deals add to a growing record showing that voting-machine companies have been able to turn reputational attacks into high-stakes legal claims with real corporate consequences. For conservative media outlets that treated election falsehoods as combustible but useful content, the message is now painfully clear: the legal tab can outlast the ratings bump.