Dominion Voting Systems Sues Giuliani For $1.3 Billion Over False Election Claims, May Sue Trump

Dominion Voting Systems on Monday said it filed a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit against former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani over what it called his "big lie" campaign, spreading false statements of massive fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Giuliani served as former President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and helped craft a misleading narrative that the Nov. 3 election was riddled with fraud. Before supporters of the president stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6, Giuliani called for a “trial by combat” to challenge the results.

Giuliani has made countless claims about the integrity of the election, saying at one point that Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems Inc. originated in Venezuela as part of a campaign to rig the election.

Filed in the federal court in the District of Columbia, the case U.S. Dominion, Inc. et al v. Giuliani, the voting machine company said he caused irreparable harm to its reputation.

“For Dominion — whose business is producing and providing voting systems for elections — there are no accusations that could do more to damage Dominion’s business or to impugn Dominion’s integrity, ethics, honesty, and financial integrity,” the lawsuit says, according to the Associated Press. “Giuliani’s statements were calculated to — and did in fact — provoke outrage and cause Dominion enormous harm.”

This is at least the second time that Giuliani faced major backlash for his claims of election fraud. Smartmatic, which manufactures voting machines, sent a letter to Fox News, where Giuliani and Sidney Powell, a one-time member of Trump’s legal team, were frequent guests, accusing them both of publishing and republishing “dozens of false and misleading statements” about the company.

Dominion had filed an earlier lawsuit against Powell, whom the company also accused of spreading false conspiracy theories about the election. Dominion legal counsel Thomas Clare said in a press call that "we’re not ruling anybody out," when asked if Trump could also be sued.

Giuliani has been the subject of ridicule for baseless election fraud claims and for some of his curious public appearances. Among many confounding speeches, Giuliani referenced a scene from the 1992 film “My Cousin Vinny,” for an analogy about poll watchers and their distance from ballot counters. He also held a press conference outside a Philadelphia landscaping business and as well as spoke at a press conference where hair dye seemed to stream down the side of his face.

In a December interview with the AP, former Attorney General Bill Barr said there was no evidence of “fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election."

Trump continued to push the false narrative up until his final days in office, but issued a farewell address on his last day at the White House, wishing his successor luck without mentioning President Joe Biden's name.