Dominion Voting Systems sued Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani Monday for defamation following his post-election statements regarding their voting machines. The lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that Giuliani’s defamatory statements gave rise to more than $650 million in damages, and the company seeks a total of $1.3 billion in damages, including punitive damages.
The complaint exhaustively covers statements by Giuliani after the 2020 election, particularly on Giuliani’s repeated claim that Dominion Voting Systems is a front for a Venezuelan company called Smartmatic. Moreover, Giuliani claimed that Smartmatic had close ties to deceased Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and investor George Soros. Soros is a popular figure among right-wing conspiracy theories.
Dominion Voting System’s complaint highlights the disparity between Giuliani’s claims of voter fraud and hacking or defects in Dominion’s voting machines and the actual legal challenges brought by Trump’s legal team, which did not allege issues with Dominion’s voting machines. These lawsuits were largely failures.
Dominion alleges that as a result of Giuliani’s defamatory claims, Dominion employees were subject to threats and harassment. States including Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania have introduced legislation to review and reassess their contracts with Dominion.