Dominion sues Rudy Giuliani for spreading US election fraud ‘big lie’

Justice department watchdog separately launches probe into whether officials tried to overturn results…

Dominion Voting Systems has filed a defamation lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s lawyer and former New York City mayor, seeking $1.3bn for his alleged role in perpetuating the “big lie” about fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

The legal claim against Mr Giuliani is part of a broader effort by the voting machines systems company to push back against debunked accusations from Mr Trump and his allies that made it a target for criticism and disdain among the former president’s supporters.

The lawsuit was filed on Monday in federal court in the District of Columbia, and followed a similar claim lodged by Dominion against Sidney Powell, the rightwing lawyer who brought post-election litigation on behalf of Mr Trump.

“[Mr Giuliani] and his allies manufactured and disseminated the ‘Big Lie’ which foreseeably went viral and deceived millions of people into believing that Dominion had stolen their votes and fixed the election,” the lawsuit said.

John Poulos, Dominion’s chief executive, alleged Mr Giuliani had “incessantly repeated the false claims about Dominion voting systems on a range of media platforms”.

Mr Giuliani could not be reached for comment by phone and did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to his consulting firm.

In the final months of his presidency, Mr Trump launched a sustained effort to overturn the results of November’s election as he sought to cling to his office, culminating in the deadly assault by his supporters on the US Capitol.

As he did so, Mr Trump reportedly received help from Jeffrey Clark, the former acting head of the US justice department’s civil division. The New York Times reported at the weekend that Mr Clark had worked with Mr Trump to try to replace the acting attorney-general and call the election results into question.

The Department of Justice inspector-general announced on Monday that it was investigating whether current or former members of the department had tried to use their offices to subvert the poll’s results. The DoJ declined to comment.

Dominion, meanwhile, is taking its own action against Mr Trump’s allies and their campaign to overturn Joe Biden’s victory, alleging its business was seriously damaged as a result.

“Dominion has been unfairly subjected to the hatred, contempt, and distrust of tens of millions of American voters, and the elected officials who are Dominion’s actual and potential customers have received emails, letters, and calls from their constituents demanding that they avoid contracting with Dominion or using Dominion machines,” it wrote in the lawsuit against Mr Giuliani.

The company has also promised to bring legal action against others who have repeated claims about its role in last year’s election, and said it has not ruled out suing Mr Trump himself.

“We’re looking at everybody, and what role they played in either making statements themselves about Dominion, or perpetuating the false statements that were made,” said Tom Clare, the company’s lawyer. “So, at this stage, we have not ruled anyone out.”

Mr Clare said another potential target for legal action could be Mike Lindell, the chief executive of pillow company MyPillow and a close ally of Mr Trump.

Mr Lindell was one of several people to receive a letter in December from the company warning him to stop repeating false allegations. Last week Mr Lindell told CBS News: “I want them to sue me. Please.”