Marshall Cohen for CNN:

An alleged bribery scheme in the Philippines has thrown a potential lifeline to Fox News and other right-wing media outlets that are battling massive defamation lawsuits from the voting technology company Smartmatic for their promotion of 2020 election lies.

The overseas scandal washed ashore last year when the Justice Department charged the Philippines’ former election commissioner with money laundering. Since then, Fox News, Newsmax and OAN have seized on the allegations, attempting to obtain new documents about potential wrongdoing by Smartmatic that could boost their defense.

New court filings reviewed by CNN reveal that the fringe pro-Trump network OAN has secured permission from a federal judge to request documents from the Philippines government and nine other countries where Smartmatic does business. Meanwhile, Newsmax is pursuing materials from the Justice Department about the bribery allegations….

While fighting these defamation lawsuits, Fox News and the other outlets have argued that Smartmatic’s reputation was already diminished due to these foreign scandals and alleged overseas improprieties — and not because of their lies about the 2020 election.

If Fox takes the case to trial and loses, these arguments could significantly reduce the eventual damages payout by undercutting Smartmatic’s calculations about its losses, which it has said amounted to $2.7 billion. Last year, Fox paid a historic $787 million settlement with another election technology company, Dominion Voting Systems, for its promotion of similar election lies.