Dominion Voting Systems has sued pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, accusing her of defaming the company. In the 124-page lawsuit filed at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the company alleges that Powell spread false accusations about Dominion, their participation in rigging the 2020 presidential election, paying bribes to gain business contracts, and so on. The company is seeking damages to the tune of $1.32 billion, with $651 million in punitive damages and $651 million in compensatory damages.
The lawsuit names three defendants: Powell, her law firm, and an organization called “Defending the Republic,” which was accepting donations to fund Powell’s litigation against election fraud. Attorney Lin Wood, who is representing Powell in the defamation cases, noted that Dominion’s lawsuit is an attempt to censor people from speaking the truth. Even though Wood hasn’t seen the lawsuit, he is apparently not much concerned about it.
According to Dominion, they’ve spent over $565,000 to provide protection to their personnel, who they claim were harassed after Powell’s accusations against the company became viral. Dominion sent a letter in December asking Powell to retract her claims. Powell refused, saying that she had evidence and the company was complicit.
The lawsuit states: “In the days and weeks that followed, Powell appeared for a number of media interviews and continued to double down on her false accusations about Dominion… Dominion brings this action to set the record straight, to vindicate the company’s rights under civil law, to recover compensatory and punitive damages, to seek a narrowly tailored injunction, and to stand up for itself and its employees.”
Thomas A. Clare, an attorney representing Dominion, pointed out that the reason his team is targeting Powell is that she has been “the originator of these false statements.” He did not rule out the possibility of suing Trump. An individual Dominion employee sued the Trump campaign in December, claiming that he was the victim of false conspiracy theories. The case is still pending.
Success
You are now signed up for our newsletter
Success
Check your email to complete sign up
Dominion has been in the midst of several election fraud scandals. An audit of 22 of their machines in Antrim County, Michigan, revealed that the systems appeared to be designed to manipulate votes. The auditor, Allied Security Operations Group, thereafter requested President Trump to invoke his powers under the 2018 executive order on foreign interference in U.S. elections.
Powell is not only battling Dominion. The city of Detroit recently filed a lawsuit against Powell and other pro-Trump lawyers asking for a federal judge to disbar them. According to this suit: “These are the lawyers who are trying to use this court’s processes to validate their conspiracy theories and to support their goal of overturning the will of the people in a free and fair election… They were given an opportunity to dismiss or amend their Complaint, but they chose to continue to use this case to spread their false messages.”
Detroit is seeking sanction under federal rule 11, which mandates that lawyers do not litigate for improper purposes like causing delays, harassment, and so on. The lawsuit states that the pro-Trump lawyers “deserve the harshest sanctions” and also requested that they be fined.
Meanwhile, Twitter has suspended Powell’s account, claiming that she violated the platform’s rules in line with their “Coordinated Harmful Activity” policy. She retorted that Twitter’s actions are “fascism in its purest form,” and indicated that the entire 2020 election process, including voting manipulation and media propaganda, are all part of a long, well-planned communist coup.
