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Dominion Voting Systems, the election technology company at the center of pro-Trump election fraud conspiracy theories, is on a mission to defend its name.
On Thursday, a Delaware Superior Court judge denied a motion from Newsmax to dismiss Dominion's defamation lawsuit against it. The right-wing outlet frequently parroted baseless conspiracy theories about Dominion, alleging that fraudulent voter machines were imported from Venezuela to help cheat Donald Trump out of re-election in 2020.
Judge Eric Davis said the Department of Justice, Dominion and election experts provided Newsmax with evidence disproving widespread voter fraud theories. He said the outlet's choice to publish baseless claims anyway “suggests Newsmax knew the allegations were false.”
A week after the election, several state election officials and federal security officials released a joint statement saying the 2020 election “was the most secure in American history.” But the conservative movement — refusing to accept it had been defeated — kept pushing the bogus Dominion plot.
The company has filed several lawsuits against conservative outlets and people in Trump’s orbit who helped him spread Dominion-related lies after the election, including Fox News, One America News Network, pro-Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, and conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell. And there could be more to come.
A week after the election in 2020, Trump tweeted:
“REPORT: DOMINION DELETED 2.7 MILLION TRUMP VOTES NATIONWIDE. DATA ANALYSIS FINDS 221,000 PENNSYLVANIA VOTES SWITCHED FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP TO BIDEN. 941,000 TRUMP VOTES DELETED. STATES USING DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS SWITCHED 435,000 VOTES FROM TRUMP TO BIDEN.”
All of that is complete nonsense, of course. And thanks to the Jan. 6 hearings from the past few days, it seems clear that Trump knew those claims were false. Multiple former Trump aides have testified they repeatedly told the president and other White House officials that he was likely to lose the election, and that his claims of election fraud were meritless.
Former Attorney General William Barr memorably testified that he told Trump these claims were “bullshit,” yet Trump continued pushing those lies. And remember: Trump brought up Dominion conspiracy theories during his infamous call urging Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn his state’s 2020 election results.
Dominion is yet to file a defamation claim against Trump, but it clearly has grounds. And election officials should beware going along with his Dominion lies, too.
Earlier this week, I wrote about Republican officials in Otero County, New Mexico, who have illegally refused to certify their county’s primary election results over bogus claims the voting machines made by Dominion may have altered the count.
Officials who carry Trump’s water when it comes to Dominion conspiracies may want to make sure they have a good lawyer on retainer. The company has shown it’s not afraid to let the litigation fly.
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