Reid Hoffman Stands By Smartmatic Amid Latest Bribery Charges
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Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn who has backed Smartmatic — the company suing Fox for alleged defamation following the 2020 election — is remaining silent in the wake of new bribery allegations against Smartmatic’s co-founder.
Roger Piñate, the co-founder of Smartmatic, allegedly bribed Tibisay Lucena Ramírez in 2019 with a luxury home in Caracas in exchange for helping Smartmatic in a commercial dispute with the Venezuelan government, according to The Miami Herald. This happened after Smartmatic accused President Nicolás Maduro of committing fraud and subsequently ceased operations in the country. Ramírez is the head of Venezuela’s National Electoral Council and, according to The Miami Herald, “wielded broad authority over the country’s controversial voting system and its private vendors.”
The evidence comes to light as Piñate faces charges in Miami for alleged money laundering and bribery related to Philippine contracts. Jorge Vásquez, an executive at the company, was also included in the August 2024 indictment made by a grand jury over allegations of participation in a “bribery and money laundering scheme.”
In light of the bombshell accusations against the Smartmatic co-founder, The Federalist reached out to Hoffman — who has funded Smartmatic’s lawsuit against Fox News — to see whether he would withdraw his support for Smartmatic.
Emails to Hoffman, John Quinn (who represented Hoffman in the Smartmatic case), Julie Devoll and Felicia Sinusas (who both work for The Alliance, of which Hoffman is affiliated) went unanswered.
In a statement to The Federalist, a Fox News spokesperson said “The evidence shows that Smartmatic’s business and reputation were badly suffering long before any claims by President Trump’s lawyers on FOX News and that Smartmatic grossly inflated its damage claims to generate headlines and chill free speech while being funded by liberal activist Reid Hoffman.”
“Now, in the aftermath of Smartmatic’s executives getting indicted for bribery charges, we are eager and ready to defend our press freedoms in court,” the statement continued.
Smartmatic denied the allegations in a statement to The Federalist: “The allegations in the DOJ’s filing are filled with misrepresentations. As an example, the government citation of an alleged bribe in Venezuela in 2019 is untethered from reality. Smartmatic ceased all operations in Venezuela in August 2017 after blowing the whistle on the government and has never sought to secure business there again.”
“We have always operated lawfully, ethically, and transparently. We stand by our two-decade track record of integrity,” the statement continued.
Smartmatic sued both Fox News and Newsmax following the 2020 election alleging that concerns made by “commentators” on both networks about the vulnerability and security of Smartmatic tabulators amounted to defamation. Newsmax settled with Smartmatic for $40 million, according to NBC. But Fox had previously expressed concern that a “deep-pocketed ‘third party’” was behind the suit — an allegation Smartmatic denied in 2023, according to JP.
A recently unsealed filing revealed that Smartmatic and an “entity controlled” by Hoffman “entered into a litigation-funding agreement.” Allegedly, Smartmatic failed to disclose its February meeting with Hoffman (which resulted in Hoffman and his adviser Dmitri Mehlhorn infusing Smartmatic with $25,000,000 to fund its litigation against Fox).
A judge has since ruled that while Fox could depose Mehlhorn, it could not depose Hoffman.
Notably Mehlhorn previously indicated to The Washington Post that he and Hoffman viewed “the court system” as an “important part of the battle to protect America from MAGA.”
Hoffman has been involved in several legal cases involving “MAGA” so to speak.
Hoffman, as reported by the Daily Caller, allegedly funded the legal non-profit that defended Fusion GPS — the consulting firm behind the infamous Steele Dossier that was used to undermine President Donald Trump. According to The New York Times, Hoffman in 2017 pledged a seven-figure sum to the anti-Trump Integrity First for America (IFA), though it remains unclear how much Hoffman actually donated, if at all.
Hoffman also funded E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit against Trump that alleged Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store sometime in the 1990’s. Carroll’s suit was rife with peculiarities.
What was particularly disturbing, however, was a comment Hoffman allegedly made just days before Trump was nearly assassinated in Butler, Pennsylvania, last July. Hoffman remarked that he wish he’d have made Trump an “actual martyr.”
The grotesque comment came after fellow billionaire Peter Thiel thanked Hoffman for funding multiple lawsuits against Trump, saying it helped turn Trump into a martyr and increased his chances of re-election.
Hoffman reportedly responded, “Yeah, I wish I had made him an actual martyr.” Hoffman later tried to walk back his comment, condemning political violence and suggesting he hoped Trump “would martyr himself,” but not that he wanted Trump to die.
Hoffman also apologized in 2018 after The New York Times uncovered that Hoffman was bankrolling the firm New Knowledge, which was creating fake online accounts to meddle in the Alabama Senate election. The campaign was described by Vanity Fair as a “Russian-Style Disinformation Campaign.”
Hoffman has also made other donations, including dropping “thousands in donations” in vulnerable Senate races throughout 2023, as reported by Fox News. He also dropped big bucks into the highly watched 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court race, which was ultimately won by leftist Dane County Judge Susan Crawford.
Fox News also reported that Hoffman visited Jeffrey Epstein’s island on at least one occasion in 2014 and had plans to stay at Hoffman’s Manhattan townhouse at one point in 2014.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2