Judge allows Dominion suits against Trump allies for election fraud allegations to proceed

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Aug 12, 2021

By Jenny Goldsberry

Washington D.C. Federal Judge Carl Nichols rejected attempts from Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Mike Lindell to dismiss the defamation suits against them from Dominion Voting Systems. Nichols ruled Wednesday that the lawsuits will proceed.

Dominion filed $1.3 billion suits to all three for falsely claiming that the company committed election fraud in 2020. Powell tried to make the argument that her comments weren’t statement of fact but opinion. Therefore, they should be protected by the first amendment.

“The question … is whether a reasonable juror could conclude that Powell’s statements expressed or implied a verifiably false fact about Dominion. This is not a close call,” Nichols wrote in his opinion piece following the decision. “It is simply not the law that provably false statements cannot be actionable if made in the context of an election.”

Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani continued to accuse election workers of malpractice as recently as Wednesday. He tweeted out the link to an article about Dominion ballot machines rejecting ballots. But, he didn’t mention Dominion by name in his tweet. “Georgia ballots rejected by machines were later altered by election workers to count,” Giuliani tweeted.

According to Dominion’s website, voting machines and other election equipment used by more than 40% of U.S. voters are provided by the company.

You can follow Jenny Goldsberry on Twitter @jennyjournalism.