San Diego’s OAN hints at settlement talks with AT&T, deletes video in Georgia deal

An OAN video confirming that the 2020 Georgia elections were not fraudulent is no longer on his YouTube, Twitter or Facebook accounts.

Less than two months after settling a lawsuit filed by two Georgia poll workers, the owners of San Diego-based One America News appear poised to solve another case — against AT&T.

AT&T and Herring Networks requested a delay in the case. (PDF)

Lawyers for Herring Networks, the owner of OAN, and defendant AT&T were granted a break in the case this week. Hearings scheduled for August 26 in the downtown Superior Court have been postponed to mid-January 2023.

AT&T and Herring agreed to “stay all pending matters … to allow the parties to consider a possible resolution of this matter,” according to a joint agreement heard Wednesday.

In his sub-minute order delaying hearings that could end the lawsuit, Judge John S. Meyer, AT&T attorney Alan Brubaker, “informs the court that all parties have agreed to stay the investigation and proceed with the motions currently scheduled for April 26.” August are set, pending settlement negotiations.”

AT&T and representatives of the far-right cable network did not respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, OAN won a delay in voting machine maker Smartmatic’s $2 billion lawsuit. And a video that was part of a Georgia settlement no longer appears on OAN’s social media or website.

On Friday, federal judge Carl J. Nichols in the District of Columbia said Herring Networks did not have to respond to Smartmatic’s complaint by July 5 as originally planned.

Herring Request for a delay in responding to the Smartmatic request. (PDF)

Instead, Nichols granted an extension through August 5.

“The response will be a significant undertaking given the size and scope of the complaint, which is 193 pages long and includes 3,326 page exhibits,” said Herring attorney Blaine Kimrey.

Kimrey added: “An extended response period is further warranted by the fact that one of Herring’s lead attorneys, Bryan Clark, will be out of the country for 10 days in July on previously scheduled trips.”

Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems both claim that OAN defamed them with its stolen election lies and caused major financial damage.

In the AT&T case, filed March 7, Herring attorneys allege, among other things, breach of contract and violation of California’s unfair competition law after former AT&T unit DirecTV announced it would remove OAN from its cable offerings.

In mid-January, Reuters reported that DirecTV was by far the largest provider of OAN, with 15 million subscribers. According to OAN’s accountant, DirecTV provided 90% of the network’s revenue.

AT&T spun off DirecTV in August 2021, but the telecoms giant remained on OAN’s radar.

OAN launched on July 4, 2013 with main studios in the Bay Ho area of ​​San Diego. In May 2020, the network saw its $10 million defamation lawsuit against MSNBC star Rachel Maddow dismissed on First Amendment grounds. A federal appeals court upheld that decision.

The same fate could await the AT&T case.

Hearings scheduled for Jan. 13 at 10 a.m. include hearings addressing first amendment to protect SLAPP bylaws, objections and motions to strike (dismissal of case).

In an attempt to delay the AT&T case, a court filing states: “The parties agree and agree that an attempt to resolve the case constitutes good cause to to apply for the requested remedy and have reached an agreement to this effect.”

In April, Atlanta poll worker Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Rudy Freeman, said they had a “successful one-day mediation” with OAN and “signed a binding set of settlement terms” with the pro-Trump network.

On June 22, Moss testified before the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 riot — describing how a conspiracy theory promoted by former President Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani (and promoted by OAN) turned into violent threats against her and her family.

Exemplary OAN jobs in the days following the settlement of Georgia’s election worker case. All have been deleted from OAN’s Twitter account.

Details of the OAN agreement with Moss and Freeman were not disclosed, but it included the release of a 30-second video with an announcer stating, “Georgia officials have concluded that voter fraud was not widespread.” by poll workers counting ballots at State Farm Arena in November 2020…. A legal matter involving this network and the two poll workers was resolved through a fair and reasonable settlement to the mutual satisfaction of the parties.”

The video, which was first posted on May 9, has now been removed from the OAN website, YouTube channel and social media, including Twitter and Facebook. It wasn’t clear why.

Copies of the video can still be seen.