Dominion Voting Systems sued two right-wing media outlets and a businessman Tuesday for baselessly claiming it had thrown the 2020 election to Joe Biden, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Dominion is seeking billons in damages for conspiracy theories spread about its voting machines by Newsmax Media Inc., One America News Network (OANN), and Patrick Byrne, the former chief executive of Overstock.com. Byrne resigned from the company in 2019 after releasing a bizarre statement about his relationship with convicted Russian spy, Maria Butina.
The court filings argue the two right-wing outlets falsely claimed Dominion voting machines flipped Trump votes to Biden and that Byrne repeatedly lied about its machines rigging vote tallies in favor of Biden. Each of the defamation suits seeks $1.6 billion in damages.
“Newsmax helped create and cultivate an alternate reality where up is down, pigs have wings, and Dominion engaged in a colossal fraud to steal the presidency from Donald Trump by rigging the vote,” the lawsuit against Newsmax says.
Neither federal nor state election officials have found any evidence of vote tampering by Dominion or any other entity in 2020. Official audits and hand recounts have consistently confirmed machine vote tallies.
Both right-wing outlets have engaged in some post-election clean up after getting sued by a Dominion employee who was forced into hiding after receiving death threats related to the bogus coverage. Newsmax apologized to the Dominion employee and aired retractions about some of its claims. One America News has stated it doesn't necessarily endorse the claims made about Dominion.
Dominion had already filed four other defamation lawsuits targeting Fox News, Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, and MyPillow Inc. chief executive Mike Lindell and his company.
Dominion is one of two voting systems companies filing defamation lawsuits. Smartmatic has also sued Giuliani and Fox News.
Dominion is seeking billons in damages for conspiracy theories spread about its voting machines by Newsmax Media Inc., One America News Network (OANN), and Patrick Byrne, the former chief executive of Overstock.com. Byrne resigned from the company in 2019 after releasing a bizarre statement about his relationship with convicted Russian spy, Maria Butina.
The court filings argue the two right-wing outlets falsely claimed Dominion voting machines flipped Trump votes to Biden and that Byrne repeatedly lied about its machines rigging vote tallies in favor of Biden. Each of the defamation suits seeks $1.6 billion in damages.
“Newsmax helped create and cultivate an alternate reality where up is down, pigs have wings, and Dominion engaged in a colossal fraud to steal the presidency from Donald Trump by rigging the vote,” the lawsuit against Newsmax says.
Neither federal nor state election officials have found any evidence of vote tampering by Dominion or any other entity in 2020. Official audits and hand recounts have consistently confirmed machine vote tallies.
Both right-wing outlets have engaged in some post-election clean up after getting sued by a Dominion employee who was forced into hiding after receiving death threats related to the bogus coverage. Newsmax apologized to the Dominion employee and aired retractions about some of its claims. One America News has stated it doesn't necessarily endorse the claims made about Dominion.
Dominion had already filed four other defamation lawsuits targeting Fox News, Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, and MyPillow Inc. chief executive Mike Lindell and his company.
Dominion is one of two voting systems companies filing defamation lawsuits. Smartmatic has also sued Giuliani and Fox News.