Dominion sues Trump lawyer Sidney Powell for libel, demands $ 1.3 billion



[ad_1]

Dominion Voting Systems, one of the largest manufacturers of electoral equipment in the United States and the subject of many inconsistent conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, sued attorney Sidney Powell, who pushed President Donald Trump to quash the election results for defamation.

“Powell falsely claimed that Dominion rigged the election, that Dominion was created in Venezuela to rig the election for Hugo Chávez, and that Dominion bribed Georgian officials for an unsubstantiated contract,” the lawsuit says.

Powell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dominion is seeking more than $ 1.3 billion in damages, claiming it has spent millions on employee safety and reputational damage control, and is at risk of losing its future business.

A Dominion employee harassed by Trump supporters had previously sued Powell and others. In December, Dominion sent blackout letters to some conservative media outlets that pushed election theories, including Fox News and OAN, causing them to reconsider their demands.

Allegations of electoral fraud have been largely dismissed.

Election experts uniformly said the 2020 election was conducted fairly. A union of all the top federal and state officials who oversaw the election declared it “the safest in American history.” Election security experts, many of whom popularized the notion of hacking voting machines to raise awareness of vulnerabilities in electoral systems, found that “In all of the cases that we know of, these allegations are either unfounded or technically inconsistent. . “

That hasn’t stopped Trump and his supporters from making a variety of unproven claims that the election was stolen. Some of the most popular claims were against Dominion, which provided voting systems for 28 states.

Powell, who appeared with Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani in their attempts to challenge the election results, has constantly pushed a series of savage conspiracy theories adopted by supporters of QAnon, many of which Trump also promoted.

Powell made big promises and broke promises, insisting she would “unleash the kraken,” referring to an explosive revelation about an electoral plot that would result in Trump winning the election after his defeat. Despite a number of failed lawsuits that never came.

Matt Masterson, senior electoral security adviser with the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency until he stepped down in December, praised the Dominion costume as a way to push back against deliberate lies about integrity elections.

“There is no truth to any of the Dominion allegations, and we know that because Georgia came back and counted all the ballots, and it was consistent,” Masterson said on a phone call. .

“The problem here is that the justice system has been used as a vehicle for disinformation,” Masterson said. “So I’m glad to see Dominion respond, because that’s the way to go.”

This is a developing story. Please come back for updates.

[ad_2]

Source link