Dominion Sues Newsmax, One America For False Poll Rigging Claims

Dominion Voting Systems Corp. on Tuesday sued two conservative media networks, One America News Network (OANN) and Newsmax Media Inc., saying they defamed the US voting machine company by spreading false claims that it rigged the 2020 election against then-US President Donald Trump.

Photo Insert: Newsmax CEO and majority owner Christopher Ruddy poses for a photo with then-President Donald Trump at The Oval Office.

Dominion also filed a lawsuit making similar allegations against businessman Patrick Byrne, the former chief executive of online retailer Overstock.com Inc., Jan Wolfe and Tom Hals reported for Reuters.

Newsmax in April apologized to a Dominion employee for baselessly alleging that he had individually rigged the company's vote counts against Trump. In exchange, the employee, Eric Coomer, dropped Newsmax from a defamation lawsuit he brought.

Trump continues to falsely claim that he lost to Democratic President Joe Biden due to rampant electoral fraud, claims that were rejected by many courts, state election officials and members of his own administration.

Trump has not presented a single piece of evidence to back up his ridiculous claim. The lawsuits are the latest legal actions taken by Denver-based Dominion against Trump allies that amplified false theories about the firm.

In each of the three lawsuits filed on Monday, Dominion is seeking more than $1.6 billion in damages, citing lost profits and other harm.

Trump allies, including lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, picked up an online conspiracy theory that Dominion machines were used to hack the election, and made those baseless allegations during appearances on the conservative television stations.

Giuliani and Powell, who have also been sued by Dominion, say they were lawfully exercising their free speech rights.

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