On Saturday, I did an explainer of the Smartmatic lawsuit against Fox and other defendants. Today I’ll look at the Dominion suits against Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell
Dominion’s complaint against Giuliani is here.
The claim is similar to the Smartmatic complaint, which is no surprise since the facts are the same. Dominion asserts that Giuliani enriched himself by falsely claiming that dominion fixed the 2020 election.
Remember, while defamation law varies from state to state, generally the law looks like this: To prove a charge of defamation against a person or company, a plaintiff must prove (by a preponderance of the evidence) these four elements:
- A false statement purporting to be fact;
2. publication or communication of that statement to a third person;
3. fault amounting to at least negligence; and
4. damages, or some harm caused to the person or entity who is the subject of the statement
Dominion recounts facts to show that Giuliani thought up an “ideal” lie for showing the election was stolen:
To show that Giuliani knew these were lies, Dominion notes that Giuliani never raised these lies in court.
As with the Smartmatic defamation suit, the lie is outrageous and easily disproven, and as with Smartmatic, the lie was disseminated to a global audience. To take a few examples:
Giuliani not only presented “anonymous” sources (that seem not to exist) he embellished those sources. The brief details dozens of times Giuliani misrepresented what actually happened in elections to fit his invented narrative. He offered “experts” like Russell Ramsland to back up his claims.
It’s almost as if Giuliani just made up wild lies without caring in the least about the truth.
To show Giuliani knew or should have known these were lies (insanity is not a defense!) the brief touches on Giuliani’s legal training and experience as a prosecutor. Moreover, Giuliani persisted with these lies even after the lies were disproven, and he “intentionally disregarded” reliable sources Including Trump appointees, Republicans, and election security experts who rebutted his lies.
What makes these defamation lawsuits so compelling is that damages are easy to prove. In addition to harm to the company’s reputation and profits, people on social media were calling for Dominion employees to be jailed. Employees received death threats.
Customers and those with contracts with Dominion started looking to cancel their contracts. The resulting public distrust is destroying Dominion.
You can see that meeting the elements in this case just isn’t that hard.
As with the Smartmatic lawsuit, Dominion spends a considerable amount of time detailing the ways that Giuliani personally profited from telling the lie. He sold products on his podcast, etc.
What Dominion is demanding:
The lawsuit aginst Sidney Powell is similar. The compliant is here. Much overlap so I won’t recount it all. If anything, her lies are even more outrageous.
The damages are the same:
“All defendants” are Sidney Powell, Sidney Powell P.C., and “DEFENDING THE REPUBLIC, INC.” Remember, plaintiffs ask for more than they think they’ll get. But still. Well, if you destroy companies with lies, they’ll come after you.
There are definitely more lawsuits coming. These take time. The facts are meticulously researched and laid out.
I assume Fox and Trump are next in line.
Some questions from my inbox:
Q: Thank you for your post about Smartmatic. I am glad to see Smartmatic and Dominion file their defamation lawsuits, but I am disturbed that defamation lawsuits don’t seem to stop harmful lies. For example, even though Alex Jones was sued over his Sandy Hook conspiracy theories and admitted that he was lying, he is still spreading different conspiracy theories on other matters. What’s more, the lawsuit did not stop the Sandy Hook conspiracy theories; Q followers, and MJT in particular, are still spreading them and poisoning the airwaves. What is to be done?
There is no quick solution. If these suits are successful, they can (1) serve as a warning or deterrent; if Fox thinks they may get hit with lawsuits, they may change some of their ways and (2) if these cases go to court and the defendants lose, they’ll suffer in other ways. Their brands will be tarnished.
Q: Will the impeachment trial require all senators to vote, or can they just not attend the voting session?
Conviction requires 2/3 of the Senators present, so yes, a Senator can choose not to show up, in which case they simply don’t vote.
Q: Is Trump protected from any civil cases related to the Jan 6 riots?
I don’t see why he would be.
Q: If Trump is convicted by the Senate is the money he received from his “Stop the Steal” campaign impacted in any way?
It means he can’t use it to run for office because he won’t be allowed to run for office.
