Dominion Voting Systems sues Rudy Giuliani

Dominion Voting Systems has filed a 107-page lawsuit against Trump campaign lawyer Rudy Giuliani, accusing him of defaming the company and harming its ability to conduct business in the future by publicly making a number of false statements about its equipment.

Giuliani becomes the latest defendant in a lawsuit filed by Dominion, joining pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell and the Trump campaign, all of whom now face potential financial consequences for their public claims about the company.

The company claims in its lawsuit that it has had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra security for employees as a result of Giuliani's defamatory statements, as well as over $1 million responding to claims made by the various defendants after the election.

The lawsuit also claims that the allegations made by Giuliani and others have damaged the company's reputation and made it more difficult to continue doing business. It seeks $1.3 billion in damages, on the basis that the false statements made by Giuliani and other defendants have threatened the business viability of the entire company.

The lawsuit is based on statements made by Giuliani on social media, Fox News appearances, and appearances before legislative committees. The lawsuit notes that Giuliani did not make these claims in court, where he would have been privileged against being sued for defamation, but would have risked bar discipline, including loss of his law license. According to the lawsuit, "Notably, not a single one of the three complaints signed and filed by Giuliani and other attorneys for the Trump Campaign in the Pennsylvania action contained any allegations about Dominion."

Attorneys for Giuliani did not reply to a request for comment from either Reuters or the New York Times.

A number of pro-Trump personalities and publications have publicly retracted claims that were made about voting equipment in the days immediately after the election, including Fox News and Newsmax, which ran segments that fact-checked their own on-air personalities after legal threats were made by voting software company Smartmatic.

An attorney for Dominion told the New York Times that the company intends to file other lawsuits against individuals and media entities that have made claims about the company. MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has indicated that he has received a letter from Dominion threatening a lawsuit, and a number of other prominent personalities are apparently in Dominion's crosshairs.