Dominion sues Rudy for $1.3 BILLION: Voting machine firm claims Giuliani 'disseminated the Big Lie' that company rigged election - and says it might also sue Trump
A voting machine company sued former President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani Monday, accusing him of defamation in what it called his 'big lie' campaign about widespread fraud in the presidential election, court documents on Monday showed.
Dominion Voting Systems earlier filed lawsuits against the Trump campaign and former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell, whom the company also accused of spreading false conspiracy theories about the election that Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
Its lawyer, Thomas Clare, said it could sue Trump himself, telling the New York Times: 'We're not ruling anybody out. Obviously, this lawsuit against the president's lawyer moves one step closer to the former president and understanding what his role was and wasn't.'
Giuliani's lawyer, Robert Costello, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Giuliani has stood by his claims about the election, saying during a radio show last week he is being attacked for 'exercising my right of free speech and defending my client.'
Accused: Dominion election systems says Rudy Giuliani should pay $1.3 billion in damages for the 'big lie' that its machines were part of an election fraud conspiracy. He spoke at the 'stop the steal' rally at the Ellipse near the White House before the Capitol MAGA riot
'Election lie.' Dominion says that Rudy's efforts on behalf of Donald Trump maligned its machines, used to scan and count votes and 'deceived millions'
Trump and his allies spent two months denying his election defeat, and claiming without evidence that it was the result of widespread voter fraud, before his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6.
Dominion is seeking $1.3 billion in damages from the former New York City mayor, alleging in the lawsuit that 'he and his allies manufactured and disseminated the 'Big Lie,' which foreseeably went viral and deceived millions of people into believing that Dominion had stolen their votes and fixed the election.'
Dominion said it filed the lawsuit 'to set the record straight' and to 'stand up for itself, its employees, and the electoral process.'
It says Giuliani made claims in public which he did not make in court 'because he knew they were false.'
The lawsuit says he demanded $20,000 a day for his work for the Trump campaign - something which he denied but which he then said his 'associate' Maria Ryan had asked for - and 'cashed in by hosting a podcast where he exploited election falsehoods to market gold coins, supplements, cigars, and protection from 'cyberthieves'.'
And it says he even repeated his claims after the MAGA rioters stormed the Capitol.
Dominion names others it said he worked with who it has not yet sued, saying he acted with Fox News, Fox Business Network, Newsmax and One America News Network, and also naming FBN host Lou Dobbs and MyPillow's Mike Lindell.
A group of prominent attorneys last week asked New York's judiciary to suspend Giuliani's law license because he made false claims in post-election lawsuits and for urging Trump's supporters to engage in 'trial by combat' shortly before they stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
Eric Coomer, Dominion's security director, already has sued Powell, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and the president's campaign for defamation after he was driven into hiding by death threats.
The company's CEO John Poulos told Axios earlier this month that Dominion is exploring similar suits against Trump and others.
Founded in 2002, Dominion is a major U.S. manufacturer of voting machines, and various Dominion machines were used in more than two dozen states during the 2020 election.
Powell represented Trump in a series of unsuccessful lawsuits filed to contest the election outcome.
Sidney Powell is being sued by Dominion Voting Systems for making 'wild accusations' that the company rigged the presidential election for Joe Biden
She claimed that Dominion was created in Venezuela to rig elections for the late leader Hugo Chavez and that it has the ability to switch votes.
There was no widespread fraud in the election, which a range of election officials across the country including Trump's former attorney general, William Barr, have confirmed.
Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, key battleground states crucial to Biden's victory, also vouched for the integrity of the elections in their states.
Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies have been dismissed by judges, including two tossed by the Supreme Court, which includes three Trump-nominated justices.
In Powell's case, Dominion said that when it formally told the lawyer her claims were false and asked her to retract them, she 'doubled down,' using her Twitter account with more than 1 million followers to amplify the claims.
Powell previously represented President Donald Trump's first National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
