Dominion sues OAN, Newsmax and founder of Overstock over election plots

WASHINGTON – Dominion Voting Systems on Tuesday filed defamation lawsuits against One America News Network, Herring Networks ‘Newsmax Media and the founder and former CEO of Overstock.com over defendants’ claims that the company rigged the 2020 U.S. election for President Joe Biden.

OAN figures Chanel Rion and Christina Bobb, and Herring Networks owners Robert Herring and Charles Herring, are also named in the complaint.

OAN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Former President Donald Trump refused to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election and instead supported dozens of unsuccessful lawsuits and continued to broadcast baseless allegations of electoral fraud. OAN and Newsmax are pro-Trump news organizations.

The trio of complaints detail that OAN, Newsmax and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne “knowingly and continuously sold the false story of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, with Dominion as the villain.”

“Newsmax and OAN have both endorsed, repeated, broadcast and amplified a series of verifiable false lies about Dominion to serve their own business purposes,” wrote Dominion attorney Stephen Shackelford, partner at Susman Godfrey LLP.

“Patrick Byrne is responsible for funding and promoting a viral disinformation campaign on Dominion that has reached millions of people around the world. damage to Dominion business, ”added Shackelford.

According to the complaint, OAN and Newsmax repeated wacky and wacky fictions to include:

• Dominion committed electoral fraud by rigging the 2020 presidential election
• Dominion’s software and algorithms manipulated the vote count in the 2020 presidential election
• Dominion owns or owns a company founded in Venezuela to rig the election of late dictator Hugo Chávez
• Dominion has been implicated in alleged voting irregularities in Philadelphia and Dallas, cities where its voting system is not even in use.
• Dominion paid bribes to government officials who used its machines in swing states in the 2020 presidential election

“The defendants in today’s cases recklessly ignored the truth when they spread lies in November and continue to do so today,” Dominion CEO John Poulos wrote in a statement Tuesday, referring to false allegations of fraudulent elections.

“This barrage of lies from the accused and others has caused – and continues to cause – serious damage to our business, our customers and our employees. We have no choice but to seek to seek redress. accountable to those responsible, ”Poulos added.

Newsmax condemned the lawsuit in a statement.

“Although Newsmax did not review the Dominion file, in its coverage of the 2020 presidential election Newsmax merely reported allegations made by well-known public figures, including the President, his advisers and members of Congress – Dominion’s action today is a clear attempt to quell such reporting and undermine a free press, ”the company said.

OAN and Overstock did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Dominion was already suing Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Fox News and other pro-Trump figures over allegations of an electoral plot. Fox requested that the lawsuit be dismissed.

Trump’s refusal to accept the results the day after the election culminated in a deadly riot on January 6, when swarms of his supporters left a rally he led and stormed the U.S. Capitol. They derailed debates in Congress for hours to count voters’ votes and confirm Biden’s victory in the Nov. 3 election.

Trump was then impeached by the House and acquitted by the Senate, although several Republicans voted to hold him responsible for the riot.

The former president has since been banned from social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, but has continued to spread the false story that the election was stolen from him.

Correction: The lawsuits were filed on Tuesday. A previous version was wrong when they were filed.