Dominion Voting Systems has filed a $1.3 billion lawsuit against former President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, accusing him of pushing a damaging conspiracy theory against the company.
The 107-page complaint, which was filed in federal court on Monday, accuses Giuliani of having “manufactured and disseminated the ‘Big Lie’” that its machines changed votes from Trump to Biden during the 2020 US presidential election.
Giuliani’s claim “foreseeably went viral and deceived millions of people into believing that Dominion had stolen their votes and fixed the election,” Dominion alleged, stating that it had filed the lawsuit to correct the record and “stand up for itself, its employees, and the electoral process.”
Dominion’s complaint states that it spent $565,000 on private security to protect its employees as they faced harassment and death threats. The company says hundreds of its contracts in various states and localities have been placed in jeopardy by Giuliani’s campaign, and that it projects a loss of profits of $200 million in the next five years.
Dominion had previously sued lawyer Sidney Powell, whom the company also accused of deliberately disseminating conspiracy theories about the legality of the US election and Dominion’s role in it.
Last week, a group of prominent attorneys asked New York’s judiciary to suspend Giuliani’s license for making false claims in post-election lawsuits and for urging an audience of Trump supporters on 6 January to “fight like hell” and to engage in “trial by combat” shortly before they attacked the US capitol.
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Giuliani has stood by his claims about the election since its conclusion, saying during an appearance on a radio show last week that he has been attacked for “exercising my right of free speech and defending my client.”
