By Helen Coster
(Reuters) – Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox, which resulted in Tuesday’s $787.5 million settlement, is part of a broader legal campaign by the company to seek accountability from companies and individuals whom it claims have spread falsehoods about its technology.
MIKE LINDELL
Dominion in February 2021 filed a $1.3 billion suit against MyPillow Inc and its chief executive, election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell, who falsely claimed that Dominion’s voting machines were used to rig the 2020 U.S. presidential election in favor of Democrat Joe Biden and against his Republican rival, then-U.S. President Donald Trump.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, accuses Lindell of engaging in a “defamatory marketing campaign about Dominion that reached millions of people and caused enormous harm to Dominion.”
Lindell has countersued Dominion and previously told Reuters that he was “happy” Dominion sued him because the litigation would give him access to evidence he said would bolster his claims about the election.
MORE CONSERVATIVE NETWORKS
Dominion in August 2021 separately sued two conservative media networks, One America News Network and Newsmax Media Inc, for making similar debunked claims about vote rigging.
The two suits each seek more than $1.6 billion in damages.
In a statement to Reuters Wednesday, a Newsmax spokesperson said the network “believes that the facts at issue in Dominion’s case against it are materially different from those that may have driven Fox to settle and no conclusion about Newsmax should be drawn from that settlement.” The company said it stands by its coverage and will “vigorously defend” itself against Dominion’s claims.
A representative for One America News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
TRUMP LAWYERS AND PATRICK BRYNE
Also in August 2021, Dominion sued Patrick Byrne, the former chief executive of online retailer Overstock.com Inc, saying he too spread conspiracy theories about the company’s technology.
The suit also seeks more than $1.6 billion in damages.
In April 2022 a judge denied Byrne’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Byrne did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Dominion also has lawsuits pending against former Trump lawyers, Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, over the vote rigging claims.
Powell has denied the allegations. Giuliani previously called the lawsuit “another act of intimidation by the hate-filled left-wing to wipe out and censor the exercise of free speech,” according to the New York Times. A lawyer for Giuliani did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Each suit against the lawyers seeks at least $1.3 billion in damages.
(Reporting by Helen Coster; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Aurora Ellis)
