The company seeks more than $ 1.3 billion in damages.
In the extraordinarily detailed lawsuit filed in Washington’s federal court on Friday, the company described Powell’s TV appearances and online postings – including when she repeated her baseless beliefs that Dominion was linked to Venezuelan communists and that Georgia officials were involved in electoral fraud – and how it was amplified by President Donald Trump and his online supporters.
“Encouraged by Trump’s endorsement of his false accusations, which launched her into political stardom, Powell’s smear campaign in the media continued and intensified” with his media appearances, the suit says.
Dominion’s lawyer Tom Clare said on Friday that “we have not ruled out anyone” when asked if the company was considering prosecuting Trump or news outlets that amplified the charges.
The company is “looking deliberately at the statements and actions of everyone involved in talking about Dominion” as it plans to nominate other defendants and open more cases for false allegations of electoral fraud in the coming weeks, said Clare.
“There are a number of individuals and media companies that we consider complicit. They said them in their own voice, in their own personalities and in the print media, and provided a platform for Powell, ”added Clare during a press conference on Friday.
Dominion CEO John Poulos connected Powell’s statements about the election to the United States Capitol coup attempt this week. “The recent attacks on the democratic process are not singular or isolated events. They are the result of a deliberate and malicious campaign of lies over many months, ”he said.
Powell did not respond to a request for comment from CNN.
On Twitter Friday, she called the Dominion lawsuit “unsubstantiated and went in with the aim of harassing, intimidating and draining our resources”.
“We will not be intimidated into exercising our 1st Amendment rights or seeking the truth,” she wrote in the tweet.
The company’s lawsuit names defendants Powell, its law firm and a fund it created. In the process, the company documented Powell’s appearances on Fox Business, on a Washington Examiner podcast, in the Epoch Times and on the “John Fredericks Show”, where he sought to raise money for his electoral effort. The company also highlighted its post-election appearances on Maria Bartiromo’s Fox News program, among other media interviews.
He accuses her of making false and defamatory statements about Dominion 40 times, and also at a press conference of the Trump campaign in Washington, at rallies and online.
Clare highlighted especially how Powell continued to push the falsehoods about Dominion and electoral fraud after being asked by the company to retract its statements.
The company has repeatedly denied the allegations and election officials verified that there was no widespread fraud or change of vote in the 2020 elections. Dominion, founded in Canada, says the company projects at least $ 650 million in lost profits and revenues and in direct costs and that its reputation has faced “catastrophic” damage.
He also noted that his employees faced harassment, so much so that Dominion spent more than half a million dollars on private security for them. The company estimates it was worth up to $ 500 million in resale value from its business before the spread of electoral misinformation, according to the lawsuit.
“No amount of money can ever undo the damage that has been done to this company,” said Clare. “This damage is going to be permanent and is in progress.”
The case was assigned to be heard by Judge Carl Nichols at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Trump appointed him to the bank in 2019.