Lawsuits are coming.
Dominion Voting Systems, one of the targets of President Donald Trump’s baseless conspiracy theories about the election he lost, has warned Fox News, major Fox personalities, other conservative media outlets, radio host Rush Limbaugh and conservative lawyers that a defamation lawsuit against them is “imminent.”
The voting machine company sent 21 letters this week to the White House, Fox News, hosts Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, the Newsmax news outlets, One America News Network, Epoch Times and others demanding that they stop making defamatory allegations about Dominion, and that they keep any documents they have regarding the company.
“We are writing to announce that a lawsuit regarding these issues is imminent,” Dominion’s attorneys Thomas Clare and Megan Meier wrote to Fox News Media General Counsel Lily Fu Claffee in one of the letters provided to CNBC.
In their letters to individual news hosts, including Bartiromo, a former CNBC employee, the lawyers demanded that they “stop and stop making defamatory claims against Dominion,” saying that they had “characterized and continue to characterize the advocates of this disinformation campaign.” illuminate. Company.
Others who have received similar letters warning of upcoming lawsuits and record retention demands include Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, attorney L. Lin Wood, who challenged the results of the presidential election in Georgia, and Newsmax. anchor Greg Kelly.
CNBC has requested comment on the letters from their recipients.
During an interview Thursday on CNN, Dominion CEO John Poulos said the company would take legal action against various people “promoting and reinforcing lies … on various media platforms since election day.”
“We won’t overlook anyone,” Poulos said when asked if the company would sue Trump.
Since the loss of Joe Biden’s national popular vote by more than 7 million votes, Trump has promoted a string of false claims to claim that he won the election in a landslide and that ballots for him were fraudulently suppressed, while votes for Biden became artificial added in a handful of states where the results were particularly close.
On Nov. 12, just nine days after election day, Trump tweeted a claim that “DOMINION WILL REMOVE 2.7 MILLION TRUMP VOTES NATIONAL.”
One of the most ardent proponents of the Dominion conspiracy theories is Sidney Powell, who was started last month from the team of lawyers working for Trump’s campaign to undo Biden’s victory, as her extreme claims have been widely criticized. As of last week, Powell has met Trump at least once and visited the White House three times in connection with her efforts.
Dominion’s attorneys have also sent Powell a letter warning against defamation claims.
In his interview with CNN, Poulos said that Powell claims his company’s voting machine contains software created “ on behalf ” of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an ogre for right-wing media, and that Dominion has ties to the Clinton Foundation and George Soros are “complete lies.”
Dominion’s security director, Eric Coomer, sued the Trump campaign, Giuliani, Powell, and a number of conservative media outlets.
Coomer’s lawsuit says he has been targeted by death threats and other malicious communications because of the defendants’ false claims about Dominion’s machines.
Dominion has said on its website that “disinformation” about the company is a threat to democracy.
“Unfounded claims about the integrity of the system or the accuracy of the results have been rejected by election authorities, subject matter experts and outside fact-checkers,” the company said on its website.
“Malicious and misleading false claims about Dominion have led to dangerous levels of threats and harassment against the company and its employees, as well as election officials.”
Last week, another voting machine company, Smartmatic, said it had sent legal notices and revocation letters to Fox News, Newsmax and OAN “for publishing false and defamatory statements.”
“The question letters identify dozens of factually inaccurate statements made by each of the organizations as part of a ‘disinformation campaign’ to hurt Smartmatic and discredit the 2020 US election,” the company said at the time.
“Smartmatic had nothing to do with the” controversies “claimed by certain public and private figures regarding the 2020 US election,” the company said. “Multiple fact-checkers have consistently debunked these false statements with astonishing consistency and regularity.”
Smartmatic said that despite false claims to the contrary, the company “was only involved with the United States in the 2020 election as a manufacturing partner, systems integrator, and software developer for the Los Angeles County public voting system.”