Dominion Voting Systems is suing Rudy Giuliani for $1.3 billion, claiming Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer carried out a “viral disinformation campaign” against the company by spreading lies on, Twitter, Fox News, and his podcast.
Giuliani led Trump’s effort to get the November election result overturned, and increasingly embraced baseless conspiracy theories in order to do so. Central to his effort were numerous conspiracy theories about Dominion and its employees—rumors that first emerged from the QAnon fever swamp before being embraced by Trump and his team.
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“Giuliani’s statements,” the suit states, “were calculated to — and did in fact — provoke outrage and cause Dominion enormous harm.”
The lawsuit outlines a timeline of Giuliani’s comment about Dominion, 50 in all, and points out that the lawyer was careful not to make any of those claims in court, where he would have left himself open to legal action.
“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,” the lawsuit says.
In late December, Dominion sent Giuliani a letter warning that the company was keeping a record of all statements by the former New York City mayor. But Giuliani ignored the warning, and continued to disparage the company.
Most recently, he mentioned Dominion during a speech on Jan. 6 moments before a pro-Trump mob violently attacked the Capitol, and then again on social media as the riot was taking place.
“Having been deceived by Giuliani and his allies into thinking that they were not criminals — but patriots ‘Defend[ing] the Republic’ from Dominion and its co-conspirators — they then bragged about their involvement in the crime on social media,” the suit states.
The lawsuit is the second from Dominion in recent weeks. Earlier this month it sued lawyer Sidney Powell, also for $1.3 billion, over her role in disseminating conspiracies about the company in a series of lawsuits.
