Dominion Voting Systems Sues Sidney Powell, alleges her “wild accusations are demonstrably false”

Dominion Voting Systems Sues Sidney Powell, alleges her “wild accusations are demonstrably false”

Dominion Voting Systems and affiliates have sued lawyer Sidney Powell and Defending The Republic, Inc., over claims she made that election fraud was perpetrated with or through Dominion systems.

We covered the threat of suit, and the background, on December 21, 2020, Sidney Powell May Get To Try To Prove Her ‘Kraken’ Case – As a Defendant in Civil Lawsuits by Smartmatic and Dominion:

Sidney Powell may get her day in court as to her allegations against Dominion and Smartmatic. As you recall, she has advanced a theory of foreign and possible U.S. intelligence service manipulation of those voting and software systems to rig the election. She’s never offered any proof of that, and the mere possibility that it might have happened or could happen is not proof it did happen. We’ve emphasized that problem since the start.

The “Kraken” as it was called served as an unprovable distraction from other more specific claims of fraud. Now Smartmatic and Dominion are demanding retractions not only from Powell but also from conservative media who allegedly advance similar claims. Reportedly some of the networks are running segments disavowing the accusations, such as this at Newsmax.

Newsmax just aired this note to "clarify" its coverage of Smartmatic and Dominion. pic.twitter.com/I5XZ7CQpAk

— John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) December 21, 2020

Lin Wood, the second half of the Kraken team, is representing Powell and daring the firms to file suit:

Knowing my background & experience in defamation law, Sidney @SidneyPowell1asked me to represent her & respond to SmartMatic litigation threat.

Since everything Sidney is saying about election fraud is documented TRUTH, my response to SmartMatic was simple & to the point. pic.twitter.com/bWvhBXmtsi

— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) December 20, 2020

[Note: Wood’s Twitter account was suspended by Twitter, that is why the tweet no longer loads.]

Earlier today Dominion filed its lawsuit. You can read the Complaint here (pdf.). Here are the opening paragraphs:

1. This defamation action arises from statements made by Sidney Powell, who— acting in concert with allies and media outlets determined to promote a false preconceived narrative about the 2020 election—caused unprecedented harm. During a Washington, D.C. press conference, a Georgia political rally, and a media blitz, Powell falsely claimed that Dominion had rigged the election, that Dominion was created in Venezuela to rig elections for Hugo Chávez, and that Dominion bribed Georgia officials for a no-bid contract.

2. Powell’s wild accusations are demonstrably false. Far from being created in Venezuela to rig elections for a now-deceased Venezuelan dictator, Dominion was founded in Toronto for the purpose of creating a fully auditable paper-based vote system that would empower people with disabilities to vote independently on verifiable paper ballots. As it grew, Dominion developed technology to solve many of the technical and voter intent issues that came to light as a result of the 2000 Presidential Election. Its systems are certified under standards promulgated by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (“EAC”), reviewed and tested by independent testing laboratories accredited by the EAC, and were designed to be auditable and include a paper ballot backup to verify results.1 Since its founding, Dominion has been chosen by thousands of election officials throughout the United States to provide the technology to effectively administer transparent and fully auditable elections.

3. Because of these safeguards, there are mountains of direct evidence that conclusively disprove Powell’s vote manipulation claims against Dominion—namely, the millions of paper ballots that were audited and recounted by bipartisan officials and volunteers in Georgia and other swing states, which confirmed that Dominion accurately counted votes on paper ballots.

4. When respected Georgia Republicans disproved Powell’s false accusations by announcing that Georgia’s paper ballot recount had verified the accuracy of Dominion’s vote counts, Powell sought to discredit them by falsely accusing Dominion of paying kickbacks to them and their families in return for a no-bid contract. The only “evidence” Powell ever put forward to support that false accusation was a doctored certificate from the Georgia Secretary of State. Powell has insinuated that the fact that the certificate is undated is suspicious. In reality, the authentic certificate is dated and is publicly available on the Georgia Secretary of State’s website, along with public records showing there was a competitive bid process for the Georgia contract and that Dominion competed against Smartmatic and Election Systems & Software (“ES&S”).2

* * *

8. As a result of the defamatory falsehoods peddled by Powell—in concert with likeminded allies and media outlets who were determined to promote a false preconceived narrative— Dominion’s founder, Dominion’s employees, Georgia’s governor, and Georgia’s secretary of state have been harassed and have received death threats, and Dominion has suffered enormous harm.

9. After Dominion sent Powell a letter putting her on formal notice of the facts and the death threats and asking her to retract her false claims, Powell doubled down, tweeting to her 1.2 million Twitter followers that she heard that “#Dominion” had written to her and that, although she had not even seen Dominion’s letter yet, she was “retracting nothing” because “[w]e have #evidence” and “They are #fraud masters!”7 To ensure that her tweet would be published to the largest possible audience and inflict maximum harm on Dominion, Powell tagged some of her allies with massive Twitter followings, including Donald Trump, Georgia-based defamation attorney L. Lin Wood, and Powell’s client, Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

10. In the days and weeks that followed, Powell appeared for a number of media interviews and continued to double down on her false accusations about Dominion.

11. Dominion brings this action to set the record straight, to vindicate the company’s rights under civil law, to recover compensatory and punitive damages, to seek a narrowly tailored injunction, and to stand up for itself and its employees.

The suit seeks $651 million in compensatory damages, and an equivalent of punitive damages, which is dramatic, but not sure where the number comes from.

PRAYER FOR RELIEF

WHEREFORE, Dominion respectfully requests that the Court enter an award and judgment in its favor, and against all Defendants jointly and severally, as follows:

(a) awarding Dominion compensatory damages of not less than $651,735,000;
(b) awarding Dominion punitive damages of not less than $651,735,000;
(c) awarding Dominion all expenses and costs, including attorneys’ fees;
(d) granting a narrowly tailored permanent injunction requiring the removal of
all the Defendants’ statements that are determined to be false and defamatory
and enjoining the Defendants from repeating such statements or engaging in
any further deceptive trade practices relating to Dominion; and
(e) such other and further relief as the Court deems appropriate.

We can expect many more such lawsuits. It’s doubtful Powell is good for much money, but media entities — and Trump? — may be.

Powell tweeted the following statement:

#Dominion’s suit against me & http://DefendingTheRepublic.org is baseless & filed to harass, intimidate, & to drain our resources as we seek the truth of #DominionVotingSystems’ role in this fraudulent election. We will not be cowed in exercising our 1st Amendment rights or seeking truth

One other thing, a defamation case opens up a lot of Dominions records to discovery. Sometimes a lawsuit demonstrates “don’t wish for something, you might get it.”

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