Former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell was sued for defamation by the voting-machine company she repeatedly placed at the center of a vast and unfounded election conspiracy that she claimed switched votes to favor President-elect Joe Biden.
The complaint filed Friday by Dominion Voting Systems Inc. seeks $1.3 billion from Powell, who filed numerous unsuccessful court cases seeking to overturn the election results. She was dumped by the Trump campaign not long after a Nov. 19 press conference in which she claimed that agents from Iran and China infiltrated Dominion’s voting machines to help Biden, and that the software had ties to Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, who died in 2013.
“Powell’s wild accusations are demonstrably false,” the company, based in Toronto and Denver, said in the complaint. “Acting in concert with allies and media outlets that were determined to promote a false preconceived narrative about the 2020 election, Powell launched a viral disinformation campaign about Dominion that reached millions of people and caused enormous harm to Dominion.”
The case could be the first of numerous suits against individuals and media outlets accused of trashing the company’s reputation by repeating or broadcasting wild conspiracy theories to explain President Donald Trump’s failed bid for a second term. Trump’s lead election lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, Fox News and the White House itself were among those who received letters from Dominion’s attorneys in December.
“It’s very easy to say something on Twitter without evidence,” Dominion Chief Executive Officer John Poulos said during a virtual press call Friday. “It is another thing to have to come forward in a court of law and identify your basis for making these statements.”
Powell didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Also named as a defendant in the suit is Defending the Republic Inc., based in Dallas. Powell has a website, defendingtherepublic.org, on which she continues to solicit donations for her work “to defend and to protect the integrity of elections in the United States.”
Powell claimed that Dominion carried out the alleged scam with help from thousands of corrupt Democratic election workers. Those allegations were repeated in several lawsuits Powell filed independently from the campaign challenging election results in battleground states. She described her litigation as “releasing the Kraken,” a reference to a mythical sea monster unleashed by Zeus in the 1981 fantasy film “Clash of the Titans.” Judges swiftly rejected her claims for lack of credible evidence.
Powell also frequently discussed her theories about Dominion during television interviews with conservative media outlets, promising vast amounts of hard evidence that never materialized.
The Dominion CEO said false election claims by Powell and others were linked to the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by Trump supporters, who purported to believe that the election had been stolen.
“We don’t view that as an isolated event,” Poulos said. “We believe the underlying emotions that we saw unfold this week is in large part because of the false narrative that has been promoted by actors like Sidney Powell and amplified by numerous social media platforms and repeated over and over even after they have been debunked.”
The complaint filed Friday by Dominion Voting Systems Inc. seeks $1.3 billion from Powell, who filed numerous unsuccessful court cases seeking to overturn the election results. She was dumped by the Trump campaign not long after a Nov. 19 press conference in which she claimed that agents from Iran and China infiltrated Dominion’s voting machines to help Biden, and that the software had ties to Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, who died in 2013.
“Powell’s wild accusations are demonstrably false,” the company, based in Toronto and Denver, said in the complaint. “Acting in concert with allies and media outlets that were determined to promote a false preconceived narrative about the 2020 election, Powell launched a viral disinformation campaign about Dominion that reached millions of people and caused enormous harm to Dominion.”
The case could be the first of numerous suits against individuals and media outlets accused of trashing the company’s reputation by repeating or broadcasting wild conspiracy theories to explain President Donald Trump’s failed bid for a second term. Trump’s lead election lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, Fox News and the White House itself were among those who received letters from Dominion’s attorneys in December.
“It’s very easy to say something on Twitter without evidence,” Dominion Chief Executive Officer John Poulos said during a virtual press call Friday. “It is another thing to have to come forward in a court of law and identify your basis for making these statements.”
Powell didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Also named as a defendant in the suit is Defending the Republic Inc., based in Dallas. Powell has a website, defendingtherepublic.org, on which she continues to solicit donations for her work “to defend and to protect the integrity of elections in the United States.”
Powell claimed that Dominion carried out the alleged scam with help from thousands of corrupt Democratic election workers. Those allegations were repeated in several lawsuits Powell filed independently from the campaign challenging election results in battleground states. She described her litigation as “releasing the Kraken,” a reference to a mythical sea monster unleashed by Zeus in the 1981 fantasy film “Clash of the Titans.” Judges swiftly rejected her claims for lack of credible evidence.
Powell also frequently discussed her theories about Dominion during television interviews with conservative media outlets, promising vast amounts of hard evidence that never materialized.
The Dominion CEO said false election claims by Powell and others were linked to the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by Trump supporters, who purported to believe that the election had been stolen.
“We don’t view that as an isolated event,” Poulos said. “We believe the underlying emotions that we saw unfold this week is in large part because of the false narrative that has been promoted by actors like Sidney Powell and amplified by numerous social media platforms and repeated over and over even after they have been debunked.”
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