Voters in line at a Michigan polling place.Photo: John Moore/Getty
Dominion Voting Systems continues its legal fight against those it says pushed damaging election fraud conspiracy theories in the wake of the 2020 presidential election. On Tuesday, the company filed three separate lawsuits — one against right-wing television channels Newsmax, another against One America News (OAN), and one against Patrick Byrne, the former chief executive of Overstock and a vocal right-wing figure.
Newsmax, OAN, and Byrne are being sued for $1.73 billion each.
‘The majority of people [at OAN] did not believe the voter fraud claims being run on the air," Golingan told theTimes, according to Dominion’s complaint. “A lot of people said, ‘This is insane, and maybe if they sue us, we’ll stop putting stories like this out.’ "
That complaint also calls out the network for allegedly using unqualified people to offer supposed proof of the conspiracy theory, despite the fact that the so-called “experts” appear to have no background in voting whatsoever.
For instance, the suit claims that OAN featured an alleged “expert mathematician” who was in reality a convicted felon working as a swing set installer in Long Island; and, in another segment, a “political consultant” who was in reality a a 24-year-old “Stop the Steal” organizer.
Dominion’s suit against Byrne alleges that the former CEO “manufactured and promoted fake evidence to convince the world” of a “massive international conspiracy” that involved the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI, Chief Justice John Roberts, the governments of China and Venezuela and Dominion, among others.
Byrne, who led Overstock from 1999 to 2019, resignedfollowing revelationsthat he had been in an intimate relationship with Russian spy Maria Butina.
Since last fall, the election equipment provider has found itself at the center of right-wing claims supporting the former president’s repeated and false claims that he won the2020 election, which he — in fact — lost to PresidentJoe Biden.
In February, Dominion filed a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit against MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who has been an outspoken supporter of the former president’s allegations of election wrongdoing — and who, the company claims, has repeatedly spread a baseless conspiracy that alleges Dominion’s voting machines somehow changed peoples’ votes after they were submitted.
A month prior to filing suit against Lindell, Dominionsued Rudy GiulianiandSidney Powell, two lawyers who represented Trump during hisunsuccessful pushto overturn the election.
Those two lawsuits each seek $1.3 billion in damages, stemming from the lawyers' statements about the company.
And in March, Dominion filed a $1.6 billionlawsuitagainst Fox News, alleging that the network “took a small flame” of disinformation and “turned it into a forest fire.”
Those cases remain ongoing. Dominion has not sued Trump himself.
source: people.com
