Memo to those who are certain that the presidential election was rigged against Donald Trump, as well as to those who are just as sure that Joe Biden won fair and square: If a couple of federal lawsuits proceed, the public should get a good idea of which side is right.
Dominion Voting Systems, whose voting machines have been criticized by Trump and others since the election, has filed a defamation lawsuit against the former president’s attorney, Rudolph Giuliani. The company seeks more than $1.3 billion from Giuliani for his public comments about Dominion’s voting machines.
Dominion had previously filed a similar lawsuit against another Trump attorney, Sidney Powell, and it’s likely that more lawsuits are coming. Some in the media who publicized the allegations against Dominion, including Fox News and Newsmax, have already backed away from their reporting under threat of legal action from the company.
In terms of getting at what really did or did not happen with the voting machines, the depositions and other information developed before anything gets into a courtroom should provide a lot of insight into the strength of each side’s case.
Dominion officials will have to offer evidence, under questioning from defense attorneys, to bolster its claim that what Giuliani and Powell have said about the company crosses the line of legally protected free speech. The best way to do this is to provide proof that the company’s machines worked properly last year.
Giuliani and Powell, meanwhile, will have to provide evidence that the things they said are accurate. Some of that could be a tall order, such as claiming the company was started in Venezuela to help its former president fix elections in that country.
Anyway, let’s have at it and see who’s right.
