After months of fending off accusations and making legal threats, Dominion Voting Systems is suing pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell.
In a complaint filed on Friday, Dominion alleged that Powell’s claims that the corporation’s voting machine software was compromised caused “unprecedented harm” and were tantamount to defamation.
“Powell’s wild accusations are demonstrably false. … The viral disinformation campaign has irreparably damaged Dominion’s reputation,” read the filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. “Dominion brings this action to set the record straight, to vindicate the company’s rights under civil law, to recover compensatory and punitive damages, to seek a narrowly tailored injunction, and to stand up for itself and its employees.”
The lawsuit, which seeks more than $1.3 billion in damages, comes after threats of litigation from the company’s leadership as recently as earlier this week. In an interview with Axios on Monday, CEO John Poulos said that a motion to file against Powell was “imminent” due to her spread of accusations that he deemed slanderous.
“There were things being said about me personally, about the company I founded, that is so demonstrably false,” Poulos said. “The level of falsity was — just reached the level that I had not previously thought would ever be possible.”
Powell, who has been adamant in her claims that Dominion engaged in impropriety, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Dominion sent a letter to Powell last month demanding a retraction. In addition, Smartmatic, another election technology company that has faced conspiratorial allegations of fraud, also warned media outlets about possible legal action against it for promoting similar election-related conspiracy theories about the company or who have let guests, like Powell, come on and make claims without fact-checking them.
In a statement shared with the Washington Examiner, a legal counsel for Dominion alluded to other potential lawsuits going forward and did not deny the possibility of suing President Trump.
“Our immediate focus is on Sidney Powell, who has been one of the most egregious and prolific purveyors of defamatory falsehoods,” said Thomas Clare, a partner at Clare Locke. “Moving forward, we will certainly be taking a close look at others who have participated directly in the defamatory campaign — as well as those who have recklessly provided a platform for these discredited allegations.”
Powell and another pro-Trump attorney who said he was representing her, Lin Wood, responded to both Dominion and Smartmatic to say that nothing would be retracted.
Jerry Dunleavy and Mike Brest contributed to this report.
