Sidney Powell Argues Her Dominion Defamation Lawsuit Be Tossed Because ‘No Reasonable Person’ Would Believe Her
Former Trump lawyer and conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell moved to dismiss a lawsuit filed against her by Dominion Voting Systems Monday, arguing her earlier claims that Dominion was involved in an orchestrated voter fraud effort were so outrageous that “reasonable people would not accept such statements as fact.”
KEY FACTS
Powell’s lawyers
argued her claims that Dominion worked with Democrats to rig its voting machines to ensure a win for Joe Biden were clearly her own “opinions and legal theories” and not statements that the public would immediately believe.
According to the lawyers, Dominion’s descriptions of Powell’s statements as “wild accusations” and “outlandish claims” support the idea that
a reasonable person would not automatically believe her.
Her claims were made as she served on former President Donald Trump’s legal team, which was tasked with
challenging the results of the 2020 election in courts across the country after he lost to Biden, all of which were
thrown out.
Powell’s lawyers, in documents filed in Washington, D.C., pointed to
previous court rulings that state political language “is often vituperative, abusive and inexact,” and that it is a “well recognized principle that political statements are inherently prone to exaggeration and hyperbole.”
The lawyers also wrote that the complaint, filed in Washington, D.C., does not have enough
connection to the area and requested for the case to be transferred to a district court in Texas, Powell’s home state, if it’s not dropped altogether.
“Those members of the public who were interested in the controversy were free to, and did, review that evidence and reached their own conclusions—or awaited resolution of the matter by the courts before making up their minds,” Powell’s lawyers wrote
in the filing.
Powell is being sued by Dominion for
$1.3 billion in damages after repeatedly claiming the company played a role in a far-reaching conspiracy to rid the White House of Trump by rigging voting machines.The lawsuit described 40 occasions Powell allegedly made false and defamatory statements about Dominion with “
actual malice,” which allegedly resulted in the company’s founder and employees receiving death threat. Dominion has also filed lawsuits against fellow Trump lawyer
Rudy Giuliani and MyPillow CEO
Mike Lindell over their pushing of the election conspiracy. Giuliani told
Forbes in February the lawsuit is “a “wonderful opportunity to take discovery and prove exactly
who and what they are,” and Lindell told
Forbes before the lawsuit against him was filed that he would
“welcome” being sued by Dominion, adding he has “100% proof” they committed election fraud.