Giuliani defense: Dominion conspiracy theories are ‘substantially true’
- Rudy Giuliani said his false claims about Dominion Voting Systems committing election fraud were “substantially true” in a new court filing.
- Dominion is seeking $1.3 billion in damages in a defamation lawsuit against Giuliani.
- A federal judge denied Giuliani’s request to have the lawsuit thrown out earlier this month.
Rudy Giuliani said his false claims about Dominion Voting Systems’ role in the 2020 presidential election were “substantially true” in a new court filing, even as he acknowledged that he doesn’t understand how the company’s voting software works.
The former New York mayor is facing a defamation lawsuit from Dominion, for which it seeks $1.3 billion in damages. A federal judge recently denied Giuliani’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, ruling that a jury could reasonably find he and others acted recklessly in claiming that Dominion had committed election fraud.
In an answer to Dominion’s complaint submitted Wednesday, a lawyer for Giuliani doubled down on the conspiracy theories he pushed about the company.
“Plaintiffs’ claims are barred in whole or in part because some and/or all of Giuliani’s statements complained of are substantially true,” the filing reads.
The filing also argued that most of Giuliani’s claims about Dominion are protected under the First Amendment, have already passed the statute of limitations, or that any damages Dominion suffered were not caused by Giuliani’s actions.
The Dominion lawsuit says Giuliani pushed false claims that the company was “created in Venezuela at the direction of Hugo Chávez” to ensure that the late dictator never lost an election, and that he spread conspiracy theories that “Dominion flipped votes from Trump to Biden by running an algorithm that automatically flips all the votes.”
In the new filing, Giuliani’s lawyer says that the former mayor lacks enough understanding of Dominion’s voting software to admit to or deny that many of the claims he made about it are defamatory.
The filing also denied Dominion’s allegation that Giuliani used false claims about election fraud to promote sales of cigars, vitamin supplements, and “security” services to his podcast listeners.
“After decrying how an American election had been fixed by a Venezuelan-owned company, Giuliani marketed cigars from an ‘American-owned’ company, offering ‘$20 off orders over $100’ if his viewers used the code ‘Rudy20’ when ordering,” the defamation lawsuit reads.
Dominion also has filed defamation lawsuits against Sydney Powell, a former lawyer for Donald Trump, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. A federal judge also dismissed Powell and Lindell’s motions to dismiss those lawsuits earlier this month.
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