World News – AU – EXCLUSIVE: Dominion sends letters threatening defamation to Sean Hannity, Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and other pro-Trump media representatives

Dominion Voting Systems has sent letters to Fox News, Newsmax, and One America News warning of a libel lawsuit.

The electoral firm is at the center of a false right-wing conspiracy theory that has rigged the results of the 2020 presidential election.

In the letters of 22. December 31st, recipients will be warned to keep documents and copies of correspondence related to Dominion.

Tom Clare, an attorney who represents Dominion, told Insider that he had « no choice » but to take legal action because false conspiracy theory had spread about the company.

He said the feedback from Fox News and Newsmax on Smartmatic, a competing voting technology company, was not good enough.

Dominion Voting Systems has sent letters to Fox News, as well as right-wing media outlets Newsmax and One America News, alleging that the electoral technology company has rigged the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Dominion has also sent letters to individual presenters and right-wing media representatives, including Sean Hannity of Fox News, Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo, and Greg Kelly, presenter of Rush Limbaugh and Newsmax. The letters were checked by insiders.

« We are writing about blatantly false allegations that Dominion somehow manipulated or otherwise inappropriately influenced the youngest U. S.. . Presidential elections – allegations that you mentioned in your program and that you repeated yourself, « the letter to Hannity reads.

Requests that he « stop making defamatory claims against Dominion » and « keep all documents relating to Dominion and your smear campaign against the company » and warns that « litigation regarding these issues is imminent ». « The other letters have a similar language.

In the letters of 22. December 31st, recipients will be warned to keep documents and copies of correspondence related to Dominion. The company is at the center of a conspiracy theory that has secret ties to rival electoral technology company Smartmatic and the regime of the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, and develops technology that can secretly flip President Donald Trump’s voices, President-elect Joe Biden.

« We have advised Fox, Newsmax and OAN that we have claims and that we are evaluating those claims and that we intend to pursue those claims, » ​​Dominion attorney Tom Clare told Insider in an interview Wednesday night. « We want to make sure that they not only keep documents, but that they don’t duplicate these allegations. « 

The letters to individual media representatives received from Insider are the latest detail in the emerging defamation dispute. The Daily Beast reported Wednesday that Dominion would be sending the letters to the media outlets.

Clare told Insider that Dominion has « no choice » but to take legal action as the false conspiracy theory about the company is rife on right-wing news outlets and social media. The company was forced to hire private security guards to protect its employees from death threats.

« In cable news, on Twitter, and on YouTube videos, there is no way to be fair about the truth. There are no winners and losers, it’s just people yelling at each other, « Clare told Insider. « The only thing we’re trying to do is discover the truth. When we have a lawsuit, there are rules, there is a process, there is evidence. And in the end there is a judgment. « 

Dominion has been on the offensive in the past few weeks, tracking down Sidney Powell, the former Trump campaign attorney who filed four failed federal lawsuits spreading conspiracy theory.

Since Powell first advanced the theory in November, he’s become a staple of OAN and Newsmax, and has been an occasional guest on Fox News.

Joe Oltmann, who claims to have included Dominion manager Eric Coomer for secretly working with Antifa to rig the election. Oltmann has provided no evidence of the existence of such a record, and Coomer is suing him in his own civil lawsuit.

Joshua Merritt, a self-proclaimed military intelligence expert who goes under the pen name « Spider » in Powell’s legal documents.

It also sent a letter to Lin Wood, another lawyer and ally of Powell and Trump.

Powell has refused to withdraw her testimony about Dominion. Clare told Insiders that Dominion’s legal action would be taken against her.

« If she doesn’t withdraw statements – which she has already said she won’t – we will proceed with a defamation trial against Sidney Powell, » said Clare.

Dominion has also sent letters to The Epoch Times, another influential right-wing media company with a huge demand for withdrawals. And to Mellissa Carone, a Michigan resident, who falsely touted Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani as a witness to election fraud.

« Without a trace of confirmatory evidence, you claimed you saw several different versions of electoral fraud – from a van story to other allegations that votes were counted multiple times, » the letter to Carone read. « You made these statements public even though you knew all along that your attacks on Dominion had no basis in reality. « 

Insider reported Wednesday that Dominion also sent Giuliani a document-keeping letter that spread elements like the same conspiracy theory despite attempting to distance himself from Powell. Dominion also sent a document-on-hold letter to Pat Cipollone, White House attorney.

« We want Giuliani to keep documents because he was obviously involved in many of these conversations, » Clare told Insider. « We take Giuliani’s extrajudicial statements he made very seriously because he made the same false and harmful allegations as Sidney Powell. « 

A Fox News representative referred Insider to an interview host Eric Shawn conducted with an engineering professor who studied Dominion’s technology and said it was « physically impossible » for their technology to change voices. The rep also pointed out a clip from host Tucker Carlson showing skepticism towards Sidney Powell.

Earlier this month, Smartmatic, the competing voting technology company, sent resignation requests to Fox News, Newsmax and OAN.

Fox News broadcast an off-screen clip of an interviewer speaking to an electoral professional who said there was no connection between Smartmatic and Dominion and no evidence that Smartmatic was involved in any wrongdoing.

Newsmax had one of its hosts disagree with the media organization’s previous coverage of Smartmatic and posted a similar post on its website labeled a clarification.

When asked if Dominion would be satisfied if Fox News and Newsmax took the same approach towards them, Clare laughed and said, « No.. « 

« If you falsely accuse someone in a prime-time slot, or in the host’s own voice, or in a 10-minute segment, you must have the same meaning and dignity in withdrawing and apologizing, » he said.

In a second letter to Newsmax, Clare described Newsmax’s actions as « poor » and indicated that previous videos and articles with false claims continued to circulate online.

« We are disappointed that Newsmax continues to lie about US Dominion Inc. Released. despite our withdrawal request from 18. December 2020 « , says the letter. « Rather than withdrawing the false statements about Dominion – as described in our last letter – Newsmax has instead decided to double its defamation while claiming to » clear up « its reporting. « 

Clare told Insiders that withdrawals must be made with the same meaning as the original false claim. As an example, he cited a 1998 Cincinnati Enquirer defamation case that he was prosecuting as an attorney for the Kirkland & Ellis law firm. The investigator was forced to withdraw allegations made in an investigation into Chiquita, the banana company, and publish the withdrawal on the front page of the newspaper.

Clare said he had a copy of this front page hanging on his office wall as a trophy.

He said if the news agencies issued a full withdrawal now it would be « at least a good first step » but « too little, too late ». « 

« Here we are in late December, almost two months after the election, » he said. « So much damage has already been done. « 

Clare also distinguished between Tucker Carlson, who opposed conspiracy theory, and hosts who did not. Hannity, Dobbs, and Bartiromo either hosted Powell on their show without defending themselves against their claims, or they repeated elements of the theory themselves.

« There have certainly been personalities on the air on Fox who we believe did the right thing. Tucker Carlson has said there is no evidence, these are not reliable allegations, these are not reliable people to make these allegations and it is irresponsible to get them on the air, « he said.

Dominion and Smartmatic also need to manage the difficult political dynamic of telling the truth. Polls show that around 75% of Republicans believe Biden was not rightly elected president. Part of this belief can be traced back to false claims about electoral technology.

If you take action against right-wing media organizations and individuals, you risk getting angry with the president. Trump himself advanced the false conspiracy theory that the election results were secretly manipulated. Many of them are friends of the president too, like Chris Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax, who has also received a letter.

Smartmatic has a small footprint in the US – it only worked with one county in the November 2020 election.

But Dominion serves states and counties across the country. It must demonstrate that its technology can be trusted in order to renew contracts for future elections. Conservative elected figures, however, can risk opposition from their grassroots – and Trump’s Twitter feed – if they partner with the company.

Clare said Dominion is playing « the long game, » carefully examining each allegation, assessing the state of mind of potential defendants and investigating the relevant jurisdictions before proceeding with each lawsuit. The document hold letters are designed to ensure that evidence is on hold if the company issues subpoenas during a legal dispute.

« We are in the process of making decisions about where people haven’t done the right thing, » he said. « And if the verdict is that they didn’t do the right thing and we have the legally enforceable claim, we will bring it. « 

Legal ethics experts previously told Insiders that both Powell and Giuliani face legal penalties for promoting false electoral conspiracy theories.

Dominion CEO John Poulos told CNN on Thursday that the company would not rule out legal action against Trump himself.

Clare told Insider he had little regard for political dynamics. He said he believes that people across the political spectrum can understand that integrity is important and that Dominion is trying to get right through its reputation. His law firm, Clare Locke LLP, specializes in defamation and has represented great right-wing figures such as Sarah Palin and Kimberly Guilfoyle.

« How do we come to find favor with people? We really don’t play this game, » he said. « We are so badly damaged by [the false allegations] that all we can do is try to defend ourselves through the judicial system. « 

EXCLUSIVE DOCUMENTS: Dominion warns Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani of a libel lawsuit and tells him to keep documents related to the voting tech company.

Dominion threatens defamation lawsuit for Sidney Powell’s electoral conspiracy theories: « You are not entitled to your own facts »

An electoral technology company at the center of electoral conspiracy theories called for a withdrawal from Fox News, accusing it of a « concerted disinformation campaign »

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Sean Hannity, Fox News, Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, Donald Trump