How do you infer who paid who from that?

Look at the details.

The lawsuit that was filed in late 2021 had in recent months devolved into messy discovery disputes, wherein Smartmatic and its attorney J. Erik Connolly went so far as to lob allegations that OAN execs had potentially “engaged in criminal activities” by “appear[ing] to have violated state and federal laws regarding data privacy.” The plaintiff alleged that 2021 emails between “Kraken” lawyer Sidney Powell and OAN President Charles Herring indicated that the network had access to a spreadsheet with Smartmatic employees’ passwords, CNN reported.

So Smartmatic sued OAN for defamation. That is civil. You pay money if you lose. Then Smartmatic starts alleging federal crimes.

Seems like the messiness was in one direction. If this true OAN had a motive to stop discovery.

How do you infer who paid who from that?