The Justice Department told a federal court this week it will continue prosecuting two Smartmatic executives accused of bribing a foreign official, despite President Trump’s directive halting enforcement of a key anti-corruption law.
Federal prosecutors in Miami said they intend to move forward against Roger Piñate Martinez, Smartmatic’s co-founder, and executive Jorge Miguel Vasquez, who were indicted last year on charges of paying over $1 million in bribes to the head of the Filipino Commission on Elections between 2015 and 2017. The alleged scheme was aimed at securing contracts for voting machines and related services during the Philippines’ 2016 election. Prosecutors say the two men also padded invoices and used slush funds to conceal the payments.
Both were charged under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which bars U.S. companies from bribing foreign officials to gain business advantages. Trump has long criticized the FCPA as a burden on American companies and, in February, signed an executive order suspending new cases under the statute and directing a review of ongoing prosecutions.
The Smartmatic case is the only pending FCPA prosecution federal prosecutors have publicly committed to continue, according to a review of court records. Whether other cases will proceed remains unclear.
The Justice Department’s decision to continue the case came the same day Trump escalated efforts to punish officials connected to false claims about the security and integrity of the 2020 election. On that day, he signed an executive order instructing Attorney General Pam Bondi to open an investigation into former cybersecurity chief Christopher Krebs, who publicly rejected claims about compromised voting machines after the election, famously labeling it “The most secure in U.S. history.”
In his order, Trump accused Krebs of falsely and baselessly dismissing claims of widespread election fraud and ordered a probe into whether Krebs improperly shared classified material.
Trump also imposed sanctions on the law firm Susman Godfrey, which has represented Dominion Voting Systems—Smartmatic’s main competitor—in multiple defamation lawsuits targeting conservative media figures. Dominion’s suits stemmed from claims about its voting machines in the wake of the 2020 election.
Smartmatic itself has pursued defamation claims, suing several conservative outlets that aired allegations about its role in the 2020 vote. The company has already reached a $40 million settlement with One America News and Newsmax. Earlier this year, a New York court allowed Smartmatic’s separate defamation lawsuit against Fox News to proceed to trial.
