COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The list is growing for those who could be held responsible for worldwide accusations against Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems.
Former President Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was officially added to the pending $1.3 billion case against the company’s accusers.
The company that makes ballot-counting machines and software was at the center of the president’s claim that the election was stolen from him. Dominion and software experts have said the claim is implausible. Dominion CEO John Poulos told reporters last month that the company was eager to have the claims from the campaign heard in court.
The case against the former New York City mayor and Trump operative was filed in United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Another campaign lawyer, Sidney Powell, was sued previously. A separate case filed by a Dominion employee brings others into the case, including a Colorado activist and El Paso County-based conservative pundit Michelle Malkin.
Powell and other Trump supporters alleged Dominion was created in Venezuela to rig elections for the late leader Hugo Chavez and that it has the ability to switch votes.
Elections offices across the country use Dominion equipment and software.
At a rally with Trump on Jan. 6, before the Capitol riot, Giuliani called for a “trial by combat” on the cheating claims during his remarks to the crowd. Giuliani said after that the phrase was meant about the voting machines; they would be part of a metaphorical combat and that the phrase was reference to the HBO TV series “Game of Thrones.”
While the Dominion suit does not seek to prove inciting an insurrection, the event buttresses the defamation claims, Thomas Clare, Dominion’s lawyer, told reporters on a call Monday.
“This is a disinformation campaign that began a long time ago, and Mr. Giuliani started the statements very shortly after the election,” Clare said. “The events of Jan. 6, and his statements and comments on that day come at the end of that series.”
What happened after proved the power of those claims.
“This is not just an academic exercise,” Clare told reporters. “This is not something that doesn’t have real world-consequences, except for Dominion. The events of Jan. 6 are highly relevant because it proves people believed this lie. People believed the statements made by Giuliani and others that were repeated in the media, and they internalized it.”
He said the disinformation had made Dominion “radioactive” and torpedoed the future value of the company.
Giuliani also had financial gain, as well, reportedly asking $20,000 a day to work on the case for the Trump campaign and talking about it on his podcast, which he profits from, Clare said.
He added that relying on unreliable sources or continuing with claims proven false won’t be a defense.
In a text message to the Washington Post on Monday, Giuliani reportedly said, “The amount being asked for is, quite obviously, intended to frighten people of faint heart.”
He claimed it was an attempt to “wipe out and censor the exercise of free speech, as well as the ability of lawyers to defend their clients vigorously.”
Giuliani told the newspaper he was considering a countersuit against Dominion for violating his constitutional rights.
Five people died at the Capitol, including a police officer and a woman who advanced through a broken window into the House speaker’s lobby.
“The disinformation campaign waged against my company is what prompts this legal action today,” Poulos said in a statement. “Rudy Giuliani actively propagated disinformation to purposefully mislead voters. Because Giuliani and others incessantly repeated the false claims about my company on a range of media platforms, some of our own family and friends are among the Americans who were duped.”
Poulos said the statements not only damaged the company’s reputation but “undermined trust in American democratic institutions, drowning out the remarkable work of elections officials and workers, who ensured a transparent and secure election. The thousands of hand recounts and audits that proved machines counted accurately continue to be overshadowed by disinformation.”
He noted that Giuliani continues to make the claims. Others, including major conservative outlets such as Fox News and Newsmax, have retreated from the claims after the lawsuits began and particularly since the Jan. 6 riots driven by the accusations.
“Although no amount of money will repair the damage done, we must pursue justice to expose how disinformation was maliciously created and purposely spread to deceive the American people,” Poulos said.
Clare said that as a lawyer Giuliani knew the sanctions he might have face in court for making false allegations, which were then aired on in the media and at rallies.
“That’s why he never mentioned Dominion in court and admitted in court that his case wasn’t a fraud case,” Clare alleged. “Instead, he peddled his lies about Dominion in the court of public opinion, in concert with reckless media outlets that knowingly gave him a global platform to spew baseless falsehoods and to undermine confidence in our democracy.
“While pushing the disinformation campaign that incited death threats and violence and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, Giuliani cashed in by hawking gold coins, supplements, cigars and protection from ‘cyberthieves.'”
Dominion said that when the company notified Giuliani last month of its intent to sue and urged him to retract his claims, he replied that he looked forward to the discovery phase of the case, when evidence is collected that presented in court.
“We’re here to grant his wish and to remind him that discovery is a two-way street,” Clare said. “These lies have had an incalculable amount of damage on Dominion and our country. We will hold him, and the many that have abetted him, accountable for their profiteering lies.”
