Rudy Giuliani.Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty
Dominion Voting Systems is suingDonald Trump’s personal lawyerRudy Giulianifor $1.3 billion over his false election claims.
The lawsuit was filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Giuliani, the 76-year-old former mayor of New York City, had cited baseless conspiracy theories and made repeated false claims that Trump, his 74-year-old client, had somehow won the 2020 election against PresidentJoe Biden.
Inreality, Biden, 78, received more than 81 million votes last November — about seven million more than Trump — and was elected the 46th president this month.
Giuliani and some other members of Trump’s legal team made repeated false claims that Dominion voting machines used in some states had manipulated votes — a conspiracy that has been dispelled. In its lawsuit Monday, Dominion refers to Giuliani’s repeated claims as the “Big Lie.”
“The harm to Dominion’s business and reputation is unprecedented and irreparable because of how fervently millions of people believe it,” the company’s lawsuit reads.
Dominion also sued another of Trump’s lawyers, Sidney Powell, for $1.3 billion over her false election claims. Thatlawsuit was filed earlier this monthand is ongoing.
Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani appear at a news conference on Nov. 19, 2020.MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty
Rudy Giuliani (center) and other Trump campaign lawyers at a November press conference.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty
The election equipment company’s lawsuit against Giuliani claims the New York attorney worked “in concert” with Powell and a number of other Trump loyalists who “peddled” falsehoods about the election, causing financial damage to the company.
Dominion says it filed the lawsuit against Giuliani to “set the record straight” over Giuliani’s conspiratorial claims.
Giuliani did not respond to PEOPLE’s attempt to reach him for comment on Monday.
In addition to Monday’s lawsuit, Giuliani’s status as an attorney is also under pressure from fellow lawyers in New York.
Last Thursday, Lawyers Defending American Democracy — a nonpartisan national legal group —filed a complaintagainst Giuliani seeking an investigation into his false claims over the election, asking that his legal license be suspended in the meantime.
More than 4,100 lawyers from across the country signed a letter from the group last month seeking an investigation into Giuliani to have him disbarred over his false election claims.
“A license to practice law is not a license to lie to the public on behalf of a client,” the lawyers’letter read, adding, “The conduct of Mr. Giuliani and his colleagues is a disgrace.”
source: people.com
