Tag: Dominion

Categories
Politics

Rudy Giuliani skips Dominion, Powell, MyPillow-Lindell listening to

Rudy Giuliani skips Dominion, Powell, MyPillow-Lindell hearing

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani arrives at his mansion in Manhattan in New York City, New York, on June 24, 2021 after his bar license is suspended.

Andrew Kelly | Reuters

Mike Lindell, Chief Executive Officer of My Pillow Inc., speaks to media representatives upon his arrival in federal court in Washington, DC, United States on Thursday, June 24, 2021.

Samuel Corum | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The temporary suspension came the day before Giuliani’s 52nd anniversary as a licensed attorney in New York. It will remain in force pending the outcome of a formal disciplinary hearing.

Giuliani spoke quickly. He appeared before reporters outside his home on Manhattan’s Tony Upper East Side to criticize the appellate judges’ “ridiculous” decision.

“They just listen to false allegations made by the Democrats,” Giuliani said, NBC News reported.

“If you want to say that I said something irresponsible, you have to give me a chance to defend myself,” Giuliani allegedly said, lamenting that “only Trump lawyers are being investigated.”

CNBC policy

Read more about CNBC’s political coverage:

But Giuliani was nowhere to be seen later Thursday when U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols heard arguments over whether three separate libel cases should be dismissed by Dominion Voting Systems.

Sibley and Arthur Aidala, another of Giuliani’s attorneys, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment on the Dominion hearing.

Dominion argues separately in the lawsuits that Giuliani, Lindell and Powell each damaged their reputations by making dozen of false and misleading claims about the company and its role in the competition between Trump and President Joe Biden.

Sibley filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in April, arguing that Dominion’s appeal claims were not brought in accordance with the court’s due process standards.

This argument differed from one of Powell’s attorneys, who in part argued that “no sane person” would believe that their false claims and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election were “true statements of fact.”

Dominion, which operated voting machines in numerous states during the 2020 election cycle, is demanding approximately $ 1.3 billion in damages in each of these cases. Dominion has also sued Fox News for $ 1.6 billion, accusing the network of falsely claiming it rigged the election. Fox dismissed the case.

At the beginning of the hearing, Dominion attorney Thomas Clare introduced CEO Poulos, who was sitting at the legal table.

Clare followed Andrew Parker, of the MyPillow legal team, who found that Dershowitz, described as “part of the MyPillow legal team,” was there by phone.

Dershowitz, the former Harvard law professor and former Trump impeachment attorney, had previously told CNBC that he was playing an “extremely limited” role in the trial.

Parker said Dershowitz could not appear in person “because he could not travel because of an operation”.

Lindell himself was present at the hearing, according to his attorney Douglas Daniels, who specifically introduced him to Nichols. “I would like to introduce Mr. Mike Lindell to the court,” said the chairman’s attorney.

Sibley followed and said to the judge, “It’s just me.”

After him, Powell attorney Howard Kleinhendler said at his introduction, “I would also like to warn the court that Ms. Powell is here.”

This is the evolution of news. Please check again for updates.

– CNBC’s Dan Mangan contributed to this report.

Categories
Business

Newsmax Apologizes for False Claims of Vote-Rigging by a Dominion Worker

Newsmax Apologizes for False Claims of Vote-Rigging by a Dominion Employee

Conservative Newsmax officially apologized on Friday for spreading unsubstantiated allegations that a Dominion Voting Systems employee tampered with voting machines to sink President Donald J. Trump’s re-election bid last year.

In a statement posted on its website, Newsmax admitted that it had “found no evidence” of the conspiracy theories put forward by Mr Trump’s lawyers, supporters and others that employee Eric Coomer had Dominion voting machines, voting software and the finals manipulated. When voting, the vote counts.

“On behalf of Newsmax, we apologize for any harm our reporting on the allegations against Dr. Coomer may have caused Dr. Coomer and his family,” the statement said.

Dominion’s director of product strategy and security, Mr. Coomer, sued Newsmax and several pro-Trump figures in December after being flatly defamed in the right-wing media arena. In his lawsuit, which also cites the Trump campaign, Rudolph W. Giuliani, and the One America News Network, Mr. Coomer alleged that he had damaged his reputation, emotional distress, fear, and loss of earnings by making false allegations the entire project would have spread Trump’s world, which he planned to rig the election.

Among the allegations was an allegation that Mr. Coomer said in a phone conversation with anti-fascist activists that he would secure a victory for Joseph R. Biden Jr., the lawsuit said. In fact, Mr Coomer did not attend an “Antifa conference call” and took no action to undermine the presidential election, the lawsuit said.

Even so, hashtags demanding the arrest and exposure of Mr Coomer have been posted on social media. Mr. Trump’s son Eric posted a photo of Mr. Coomer on Twitter, along with the false claim that Mr. Coomer said he would secure a Biden win. Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s attorney, said at a press conference that Mr. Coomer was a “mean, vicious man” who was “close to Antifa,” the lawsuit said.

And Sidney Powell, who was also one of Mr. Trump’s attorneys, replied, “Yeah, that’s right” on Newsmax when asked if Mr. Coomer said, “Don’t worry about President Trump, I did already assured He will lose the election, ”the lawsuit said.

As a result, Mr. Coomer received an onslaught of abusive messages, harassment and death threats under the lawsuit listing Ms. Powell as a defendant.

“These inventions and attacks against me have changed my life, forced me to flee my home, and made my family and loved ones fear for my safety and I fear for theirs,” Coomer wrote in a published in The Denver Post column in December.

In its statement on Friday, Newsmax said it wanted to “clarify” its coverage of Mr Coomer.

“There are several facts that our viewers should know,” the statement said. “Newsmax has found no evidence that Dr. Coomer interfered in any way with Dominion voting machines or voting software, or that Dr. Coomer ever said so. Neither has Newsmax found any evidence that Dr. Coomer has ever taken part in a conversation with members of the ‘Antifa’, nor that he was directly involved in a party political organization. “

Mr. Coomer’s attorney, Steve Skarnulis, said he could not comment on the statement “because the terms of the settlement are strictly confidential.”

Newsmax said it does not comment on any litigation.

“Our statement on the website is consistent with our previous statements that we saw no evidence of software tampering in the 2020 elections,” said a spokesman for Newsmax.

In December, Newsmax released a statement dispensing with a number of false claims about Dominion and Smartmatic, another voting technology company that has been at the center of conspiracy theories. The statement came after Smartmatic said it had sent Newsmax legal notices and letters demanding withdrawals for posting “false and defamatory statements”.

Newsmax’s statement confirmed that “no evidence was presented that Dominion or Smartmatic used software or reprogrammed software that manipulated the 2020 election vote.”

In February, a Newsmax host, Bob Sellers, interrupted Mike Lindell, the executive director of MyPillow and noisy Trump supporter, as he began attacking Dominion on the air. As Mr. Lindell continued speaking, Mr. Sellers read a prepared statement saying that the election results in each state had been confirmed.

“Newsmax accepts the results as legal and final,” said Sellers. “The courts also supported this view.”

Mr. Coomer’s lawsuit, filed in Colorado, differs from a series of lawsuits that Dominion Voting Systems has filed against Fox News, Mr. Giuliani, and Mr. Lindell.

Categories
Business

Dominion Sues Fox Information, Claiming Defamation in Election Protection

Dominion Sues Fox News, Claiming Defamation in Election Coverage

Fox News and its powerful owner, Rupert Murdoch, face a second major libel suit over the network’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election, a new front in the growing litigation over media disinformation and its aftermath.

In the recent aftershock of Donald J. Trump’s attempt to undermine President Biden’s victory, Dominion Voting Systems, an electoral technology company at the center of an unsubstantiated pro-Trump conspiracy theory about rigged voting machines, filed a lawsuit on Friday in Fox News has been accused of promoting lies that ruined its reputation and business.

Dominion, who has filed for a lawsuit, is seeking at least $ 1.6 billion in damages. Less than two months ago, another electoral technology company, Smartmatic, filed a $ 2.7 billion lawsuit against Murdoch’s Fox Corporation, naming Fox anchors Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro as defendants.

In a 139-page complaint filed with the Delaware Supreme Court, Dominion depicted Fox as an active participant in spreading false claims that the company changed the number of votes and tampered with its machines to aid Mr. Biden in the election.

These falsehoods were relentlessly promoted in public forums, including appearances on Fox programs, by Mr. Trump’s attorneys, Rudolph Giuliani and Sidney Powell.

In January, Dominion sued Mr. Giuliani and Ms. Powell on charges of defamation. The company also sued Mike Lindell, the executive director of MyPillow and an ally of Trump’s who was a frequent guest at Fox and other conservative media outlets. Each of these lawsuits seek damages in excess of $ 1 billion.

“The truth matters,” wrote Dominion’s attorneys in Friday’s complaint against Fox. “Lies have consequences. Fox sold a false story of electoral fraud for its own commercial purposes, seriously injuring Dominion in the process. If this case does not result in defamation by a broadcaster, it does nothing. “

In a statement on Friday, Fox said the coverage of the 2020 election “is in the highest tradition of American journalism” and pledged to “vigorously defend this unsubstantiated lawsuit in court.”

Dominion’s filing opened a new phase in the battle against the critics, and Thomas A. Clare, an attorney who represents the company, said Fox’s lawsuit was unlikely to be the final legal action. Susman Godfrey law firm, known for bringing cases to court, recently partnered with Mr. Clare’s law firm to support Dominion’s case.

Fox Corporation has filed a motion to dismiss the Smartmatic lawsuit, arguing that the false claims of election fraud on its channels were part of coverage of a short-lived story of significant public interest.

“A sitting president’s attempt to question the outcome of an election is objectively newsworthy,” Fox wrote in the motion.

The tale that Mr. Trump and his allies made about Dominion was one of the baroque creations of a month-long effort to cast doubt on the 2020 election results and convince Americans that Mr. Biden’s victory was illegitimate.

Founded in 2002, Dominion is one of the largest voting machine manufacturers in the United States. More than two dozen states, including several owned by Mr. Trump, used their equipment over the past year.

Mr. Trump’s allies falsely portrayed Dominion as biased against Mr. Biden, arguing without evidence that it was linked to Hugo Chavez, the long-dead Venezuelan president. Dominion founder John Poulos and other employees received harassing and threatening messages from people who believed the company had undermined the election results, according to the complaint.

Fox News and Fox Business programs were part of the mass media in which supporters of Mr. Trump denounced Dominion. The lawsuit also cites examples of Fox hosts, including Ms. Bartiromo and Mr. Dobbs, being uncritically repeated or vouching for false claims made by Mr. Giuliani and Ms. Powell.

“Fox took a small flame and turned it into a forest fire,” wrote Dominion in the lawsuit, adding that the network “gave these fictions a meaning they would otherwise never have achieved.”

Dominion attorneys also cited an unusual argument by Ms. Powell on Friday in a motion filed Monday to dismiss Dominion’s separate lawsuit against her.

In that motion, her lawyers alleged that “no sane person” would accept Ms. Powell’s allegations as facts because the political language is often imprecise. The motion essentially argues that their claims about Dominion’s voting machines were hyperbolic and therefore not defamatory.

Mr. Clare described Ms. Powell’s allegation as “ridiculous,” but said her acknowledgment that her allegations were not factual may prove relevant to Dominion’s lawsuit. “Fox knew these were lies, but they made a conscious choice to pass them on to their huge audience,” Clare said on a call to journalists.

Dominion said it recently lost key contracts with election officials in Georgia and Louisiana, adding that the company now faces “the hatred, scorn and distrust of tens of millions of American voters”.

Defamation battles are a relatively novel tactic in the fight against disinformation, but they have produced some early results.

In February, two days after Smartmatic filed its lawsuit, Fox Business canceled its highest-rated program, Lou Dobbs Tonight. An anchor on Newsmax – a pro-Trump cable channel that received letters from Dominion and Smartmatic warning of imminent legal action – interrupted an interview with Mr Lindell after the MyPillow founder began attacking Dominion.

Combined, Dominion and Smartmatic are seeking at least $ 4.3 billion in damages from Fox. Fox Corporation, which is controlled by Mr. Murdoch, 90) and his older son Lachlan, said it had pretax profits of $ 3 billion on sales of $ 12.3 billion from September 2019 to September 2020 .

As a large media organization, Fox News enjoys solid protection under First Amendment case law, which often protects newspapers and broadcasters from being held liable for claims made by interviewees. If a court found Dominion to be a public figure, its attorneys would have to show that Fox acted with “real malice” and “reckless disregard” for the truth, which is usually a high standard.

“There is concern that putting Fox under liability could lead to the suppression of information about which people have a strong interest,” said Timothy Zick, a professor at William and Mary Law School, who referred to the law first Specializes in change.

In its lawsuit on Friday, Dominion argued that Fox had an incentive to spread falsehoods about a rigged election, in part to reassure pro-Trump viewers who were upset about the network’s early projection that Mr. Biden would wear Arizona .

Dominion also claims that Fox and its hosts have benefited from uncritically reiterating these baseless claims. The lawsuit cites a surge in ratings for anchors like Ms. Bartiromo and Mr. Dobbs after the election, noting that Ms. Pirro’s ex-husband, who spoke on the air of a stolen election, later received a pardon from Mr. Trump.

Fox has argued that its coverage of the election should be viewed in its entirety, noting that at least one host, Tucker Carlson, was skeptical of Ms. Powell’s statements. The network has also said that allegations made by the president’s lawyers in an electoral battle were inherently timely.

Freedom of expression experts said Fox was forced to defend its journalism more fully than the particular claims it made about Dominion and Smartmatic.

“Fox had a problem because many of its experts said the very things that prompted Dominion to bring this lawsuit,” prominent First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams said in an interview.

Categories
Politics

Dominion and Smartmatic defamation circumstances are credible, specialists say

Dominion and Smartmatic defamation cases are credible, experts say

A voter is seen at a voting machine at the Metropolitan Library polling station on Election Day in Atlanta, Georgia on Tuesday, November 3, 2020.

Tom Williams | CQ Appeal, Inc. | Getty Images

Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic USA have a good chance of winning their multi-billion dollar defamation suits against a variety of conservative personalities and, in the case of Smartmatic, Fox News, but they have a lot to prove in court, experts say.

Each of the two electoral technology companies have sued several former President Donald Trump’s boosters, saying they worked to spread conspiracy theories about each company’s products to cast doubt on President Joe Biden’s election victory.

Dominion launched its first volley last month, suing Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, a conspiracy theorist and former Trump campaign advocate, in separate $ 1.3 billion lawsuits in federal court in Washington, DC. The company hit MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell on Monday with his latest lawsuit, demanding $ 1.3 billion in damages. Dominion CEO John Poulos warned on CNBC the next day that the Lindell suit “definitely won’t be the last”.

Smartmatic has so far filed a case in New York State Court. The company sued Fox News and its hosts Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro, Giuliani and Powell. Smartmatic has demanded a minimum of $ 2.7 billion from the defendants in this case.

Dominion’s suits are in front of District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump agent. Smartmatic’s lawsuit is before Judge David Cohen, a Democrat who was elected in November.

While the sums fluctuate, attorneys who have worked on defamation cases in the past say the companies have performed pretty well so far.

“I think these are the cases where traditional libel claims, libel claims and the application of a fairly regulated law are being made in this country,” said David Schulz, a defamation scholar at Yale Law School. But Schulz added, “It’s not that these will be slam-dunk cases at all.”

Too early to tell

Experts said it was too early to tell how much money companies can actually make. Businesses can ask for any amount of money they want, but those numbers often change as judges and juries weigh the facts.

Robert Rabin, a professor at Stanford Law School, noted that the numbers requested were “awfully large” but added that at this point it is “really difficult to be very specific”.

To win a defamation case, a plaintiff usually has to prove that the defendant made a false statement of fact that caused harm to the defendant. If the plaintiff is a public figure, he must also demonstrate that the defendant acted with “actual malice” – which essentially means that the spokesman knew or should have known that what he was saying was not true .

Dominion and Smartmatic would have to lower the bar if they were considered private individuals. But Fox has claimed Smartmatic is a public figure, and legal experts said judges would likely agree.

Some of the false statements suing Dominion and Smartmatic include allegations by Giuliani and Powell on Fox News shows and elsewhere that Dominion is owned by Smartmatic and was created on the instructions of the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez to lock elections, including the 2020 competition between Trump and Biden. Lindell also falsely claimed that Dominion machines were used to steal millions of votes for Biden.

Schulz said the lawsuits were “one of the few options we currently have to contain misinformation.”

“If we can send people to jail for misrepresenting a company’s financial situation, but there is no way to spread lies in a presidential campaign to try to influence people’s voices, then we have a big problem “, he said.

Real malice

According to John Goldberg, professor of defamation at Harvard Law School, the lawsuits against Giuliani and Powell are likely simpler than those against Fox News and its hosts.

“I think there is pretty good evidence on Giuliani and Powell that would allow a jury to find the real malice of these defendants,” Goldberg said. “For example, Dominion noted in his complaint that Giuliani routinely talked about fraud in his public out-of-court statements, but every time he was on trial and under oath, so to speak, he said, ‘No, we’re not claiming fraud, yours To honor. “

“You have a shot against Fox News and the Fox personalities, but it’s a little harder,” Goldberg said.

In its lawsuit, Smartmatic alleges that Fox News and its hosts knew that Powell and Giuliani’s allegations about Smartmatic’s systems for casting votes on Biden were false. The company argues that comments from other Fox News journalists, such as Eric Shawn and Tucker Carlson, made it clear that Fox had no evidence to back up Powell and Giuliani’s claims.

For example, Carlson said in November that Powell “never sent us evidence, despite many polite requests. When we pressed further, she got angry and told us to stop contacting her.”

Smartmatic wrote that if Fox News or its hosts had evidence to back Powell’s claims, Carlson shouldn’t have said what he did.

While the defendants in the Dominion lawsuits have not yet provided their formal responses, Fox News and its hosts have already asked the judge in the Smartmatic case to drop the lawsuit. Paul Clement, Fox’s attorney and former attorney general under President George W. Bush, wrote in a motion that the news company was just doing its job, covering the claims of the then president and his supporters that were “objectively newsworthy”.

Clement wrote that the lawsuit is “at the heart of the news media’s First Amendment mission to educate on matters of public concern”.

While this argument may be influential among some jurors, Rabin noted that there is no such thing as an “absolute defense of newsworthiness”.

There is also no “defense of republication”.

“In other words, anyone who has published a defamatory statement without qualification is also subject to a defamation suit,” said Rabin.

Uphill struggle for billions

If Dominion and Smartmatic win their cases, it could still be an uphill battle for them to get the billions they believe are owed.

If the companies can prove that the defendant’s statements were defamatory, they are entitled to the amount of money that they can prove that they lost because of the claims – for example because of lost election contracts. You may also be entitled to punitive damages or money to prevent the accused from spreading lies in the future.

Every business has sought punitive damages in addition to damages or money to repay them for the damage suffered. In Dominion’s case, it has split that damage in half, claiming that approximately $ 651.7 million is owed for each type of damage. Smartmatic has not disclosed the amount of punitive damage it is seeking, but says it is owed $ 2.7 billion in damages.

While Dominion and Smartmatic can substantiate their claims for damages by showing that they lost their business because of the false information they complain about, punitive damages claims are far more discretionary and can affect factors such as a defendant’s wealth.

Schulz, the professor at Yale, said that it could be difficult for voting machine manufacturers to obtain punitive damages because of the need to show not only actual malice but also intent to harm the company. It is plausible that the statements were more aimed at offending Biden or the Democratic Party, Schulz said.

Some states also limit the amount of punishment or damages that can be awarded in a civil lawsuit, although neither New York nor the District of Columbia in which the previous cases were filed have such limits. The Supreme Court has ruled that punitive damages are usually less than ten times the amount of damages and that smaller ratios can be scrutinized.

Dominion boss Poulos admitted on Tuesday on CNBC that the $ 1.3 billion demanded by his company could change.

“It’s difficult to set a hard number, but the damage to our reputation alone has hit us devastating,” said Poulos.

Poulos also said his company followed the first change.

Initial adjustment rights

“There is no secret endgame that restricts a person’s right to freedom of expression. We believe in it and honestly we want to rely on freedom of expression to find out the truth,” Poulos told CNBC. “Our intention is to bring the facts to the table so that American voters can understand exactly what happened during their election and how false those allegations were and how utterly nonsense they were.”

Giuliani has said that asking for more than $ 1 billion is a scare tactic.

“The amount asked for is obviously intended to shock people with weak hearts,” Giuliani said in a statement. “It is yet another act of intimidation by the hateful left wing, the exercise of freedom of speech, and the ability of lawyers to vigorously defend, eradicate and censor their clients.”

Giuliani, Powell, and Lindell have all signaled that they’re glad the suits were brought against them.

“My message to Dominion is that you finally did it because it will now be back in the limelight,” Lindell told CNBC after he was sued.

Lindell also denied Dominion’s claims that he benefited financially from the statements he made about her.

Powell’s attorney, Conservative Provocateur L. Lin Wood, said, “Get ready to rumble, Dominion.”

“You made a mistake suing Sidney. You’re going to pay a heavy price,” Wood said, according to Forbes.

Clarification: This article has been updated to clarify that only Smartmatic, not Dominion, has sued Fox News.

Subscribe to CNBC Pro for the live TV stream, deep insights and analysis of how to invest during the next president’s term.

Categories
Politics

Dominion sues MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell over pro-Trump election conspiracies

Dominion sues MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell over pro-Trump election conspiracies

Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow, waits outside the west wing of the White House before entering Washington, DC on January 15, 2021.

Drew Angerer | Getty Images

Dominion Voting Systems sued Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow, Monday, accusing former President Donald Trump’s staunch ally of making false conspiracies about the 2020 election “because the lie is selling pillows”.

The $ 1.3 billion defamation lawsuit states that Lindell knew his repeated claims that the election had been “stolen” were not backed by evidence, but were held to help Trump’s supporters of the MyPillow purchase -To stimulate products.

The 115-page complaint, filed in federal court in Washington, DC, cites numerous statements Lindell made in television interviews and social media posts, as well as in a two-hour documentary that aired on conservative media in February.

“MyPillow’s defamatory marketing campaign – featuring promo codes like” FightforTrump “,” 45 “,” Proof “and” QAnon “- has increased MyPillow sales by 30-40% and has continued to mislead people to lie their choices in pillow purchases divert, “says Dominion’s lawsuit.

In a phone interview with CNBC, Lindell said, “I’m very happy that you finally filed the lawsuit.”

“My message to Dominion is that you finally did it because it’s going to be in the spotlight again,” said Lindell.

Lindell also denied Dominion’s claims that his company benefited from his efforts.

“They also say that I benefited from it, or that I used this for MyPillow to advertise and that’s not true. I lost 22 retailers,” Lindell said. “The culture for MyPillow has been canceled.”

The lawsuit against Lindell is just the latest effort by Dominion to seek redress for the “enormous damage” caused by the “viral disinformation campaign” against the electoral society whose systems were deployed in some areas of the US during the presidential election.

Last month, Dominion sued Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, accusing him of spreading similar conspiracies about the company to “get rich financially”.

Giuliani had called the lawsuit, which also claimed more than $ 1.3 billion in punitive and compensatory damages, as “intimidating the hateful left wing to obliterate and censor the exercise of freedom of speech and the ability of lawyers.” To vigorously defend customers. “

Smartmatic, another optional equipment company targeted after President Joe Biden’s victory in a series of conspiracies, filed its own billions of dollars in defamation lawsuit against the owner of Fox News in early February.

This is the latest news. Please try again.

Categories
Politics

Dominion Voting warns Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani of litigation

Dominion Voting warns Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani of litigation

President Donald Trump’s attorney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani speaks to journalists outside the West Wing of the White House on July 1, 2020 in Washington, DC.

Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images

President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and White House attorney Pat Cipollone have reportedly received letters from defamation attorneys instructing them to keep all records relating to allegations that the Dominion Voting Systems were operating played a key role that Trump allegedly cheated out of an election victory.

Giuliani was also warned by Dominion’s lawyers that “litigation regarding these issues is imminent,” according to a new report from CNN shown a copy of the letter.

The letters to Cipollone and Giuliani reportedly requested that Giuliani stop “making defamatory claims against Dominion,” leading to voting machines.

Trump, his campaign attorneys and allies, including attorney Sidney Powell, have alleged without evidence that illegal voting changes on election counting machines fraudulently passed the national presidential election on to Joe Biden.

Powell received a similar letter from Dominion’s attorneys last week about their “wild, knowingly baseless, and false allegations” about the company. The letter requested that she withdraw her claims and keep related documents.

Giuliani and a White House spokesman had no immediate comment when contacted by CNBC about CNN’s report. CNBC has contacted Dominion and its attorneys for comment.

The article followed a lawsuit brought by Dominion’s Director of Security, Eric Coomer, against the Trump campaign, Giuliani, Powell and a range of conservative media outlets.

Coomer’s lawsuit alleges that he has been the target of death threats and other harmful communications because of the defendants’ false claims about Dominion’s machines.

Dominion has posted a page on its website titled “Setting the Record Out: Facts and Rumors” addressing allegations about the company calling it “disinformation” and a threat to democracy.

“Baseless claims about the integrity of the system or the correctness of the results have been rejected by electoral authorities, subject matter experts and outside fact-checkers,” the site says.

“Malicious and misleading false claims about Dominion have created dangerous threats and harassment to the company and its employees, as well as to election officials.”

Biden was confirmed as the election winner by the electoral college last week. Trump has refused to admit defeat.

Categories
Politics

Dominion Voting warns Fox Information lawsuits are imminent

Dominion Voting warns Fox News lawsuits are imminent

Complaints are coming.

Dominion Voting Systems, one of the targets of President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about the election he lost, has warned Fox News, great Fox figures, other conservative media outlets, radio host Rush Limbaugh, and conservative attorneys that libel disputes are against them ” imminent. “

The voting machine company this week sent 21 letters to the White House, Fox News, its hosts Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, Newsmax news outlets, One America News Network, Epoch Times, and others calling for no defamation Make more claims on Dominion and that they are keeping any documents they have regarding the company.

“We are writing to formally indicate that litigation regarding these issues is imminent,” wrote Dominion attorneys Thomas Clare and Megan Meier in one of the letters to CNBC to Fox News Media General Counsel Lily Fu Claffee .

In their letters to individual news presenters, including Bartiromo, a former CNBC employee, the attorneys called for “no more defamatory claims against Dominion” and said they had “introduced and further introduced” the advocates of this misinformation campaign against. the Company.

Others who have received similar letters warning of impending litigation and requests for document retention include Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani; L. Lin Wood, attorney who questioned Georgia presidential election results, and Newsmax host Greg Kelly.

A Fox News spokeswoman pointed out two segments that aired on Fox News last month. In one case, a Dominion spokesman told host Eric Shawn that no significant electronic fraud or tampering with the company’s voting machine had occurred and that Trump’s claims about the company were false. The spokesman noted that the machines’ printed ballots matched the electronic numbers.

In the second segment, host Tucker Carlson elaborated on his staff’s efforts to get former federal attorney Sidney Powell, who was on Trump’s campaign team at the time, to substantiate their controversial claims about Dominion.

“But she never sent us evidence despite many polite inquiries,” said Carlson in the segment.

The spokespersons for the other objectives of the Dominion legal letters did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

During an interview on Thursday on CNN, Dominion CEO John Poulos said the company would take legal action against several people who “promote and reinforce those lies … on various media platforms since election day”.

“We will not overlook anyone,” said Poulos when asked if the company would sue Trump.

Trump has made a number of false claims since losing the national referendum to Joe Biden by more than 7 million votes to argue that he won the election by a landslide and that the ballot papers for him were fraudulently suppressed while the votes were being held for Biden were artificially added in a handful of states where the results were particularly close.

On November 12, just nine days after election day, Trump tweeted a claim that “DOMINION DELETED 2.7 MILLION TRUMP VOTES NATIONWIDE”.

One of the most ardent proponents of the Dominion conspiracy theories was Powell, who last month was fired from the team of lawyers working on Trump’s campaign to overturn Biden’s victory because her extreme claims were widely criticized. Since last week, Powell has met with Trump at least once and has visited the White House three times in connection with her efforts.

Dominion attorneys have also sent Powell a letter warning them of libel claims.

In his interview with CNN, Poulos said Powell’s allegations that his company’s voting machine contains software developed “at the direction” of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a boogeyman for right-wing media outlets, and that Dominion has ties to the Clinton Foundation and George has Soros are “complete lies”.

Dominion’s director of security, Eric Coomer, sued the Trump campaign, Giuliani, Powell and a range of conservative media outlets.

Coomer’s lawsuit alleges that he has been the target of death threats and other harmful communications because of the defendants’ false claims about Dominion’s machines.

Dominion said on its website that “disinformation” about the company poses a threat to democracy.

“Baseless claims about the integrity of the system or the accuracy of the results have been rejected by electoral authorities, subject matter experts and outside fact-checkers,” the company says.

“Malicious and misleading false claims about Dominion have created dangerous threats and harassment to the company and its employees, as well as to election officials.”

Last week, another voting machine company, Smartmatic, announced that it had served Fox News, Newsmax and OAN legal notices and cancellation notices “in order to publish false and defamatory statements”.

“The letters of formal notice list dozens of factually inaccurate statements made by each organization as part of a” disinformation campaign “to violate Smartmatic and discredit the 2020 US election,” the company said at the time.

“Smartmatic had nothing to do with the” controversies “that certain public and private figures have posed regarding the 2020 US election,” the company said. “Several fact-checkers have consistently exposed these false statements with astonishing consistency and regularity.”

Smartmatic said that despite false claims to the contrary, it was “only involved in the US 2020 election as the manufacturing partner, systems integrator and software developer for the Los Angeles County’s public voting system.”