In recent court filings, One America News Network (OAN) has been accused of potential criminal activity as the network's president allegedly violated data privacy laws by sharing sensitive employee information with the Trump campaign. These allegations have surfaced as part of an ongoing defamation lawsuit filed by technology company Smartmatic against OAN.

OAN, known for peddling baseless claims of election interference after former President Donald Trump's loss to Joe Biden in 2020, allegedly sent an email to a Trump campaign lawyer containing an attached spreadsheet with purported employee passwords from Smartmatic. The technology company was falsely accused by Trump and his allies of engaging in voter fraud.

Although it remains unclear whether the shared information was accurate and how it was obtained, the court filings suggest that OAN's president, Charles Herring, sent the spreadsheet to Trump lawyer Sidney Powell. This occurred as Powell and other Trump aides were reportedly attempting to breach voting systems to gather evidence of the alleged fraud.

Both Herring and OAN have vehemently denied the accusations. However, the court filings argue that such actions on the part of OAN's leadership appear to violate data privacy laws, potentially constituting criminal activity.

Smartmatic's defamation suit against OAN stems from the network's false claims that Smartmatic's systems manipulated the 2020 election results in favor of Joe Biden. Similar defamation suits have also been brought by Smartmatic against Fox News and other prominent Trump allies in multiple states.

Notably, OAN has already faced consequences for its election coverage, as it was dropped by DirecTV in early 2022. In addition, the network recently settled a separate defamation suit with the former leader of Dominion Voting Systems, another company falsely accused of enabling voter fraud.

The outcome of Smartmatic's defamation lawsuit against OAN is yet to be determined. These recent allegations of data privacy violation further add to the legal challenges faced by the far-right network and its president, Charles Herring.