- Dominion Voting Systems sent letters to Rudy Giuliani and White House lawyer Pat Cipollone to demand that they preserve the documents in anticipation of “imminent” defamation litigation.
- The electoral technology company is at the center of an unfounded conspiracy theory, propagated by Giuliani and other Trump lawyers, that it is responsible for defrauding the November election against Trump.
- He recently went on the offensive, sending an ardent request for retraction to Trump’s ally Sidney Powell.
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Lawyers working for Dominion Voting Systems, an electoral technology company at the center of a right-wing conspiracy theory about electoral fraud, sent a letter to Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday telling him to preserve documents in anticipation of a defamation suit “imminent”.
“Because you were, and continue to be, an architect and driver of the continuing disinformation campaign against Dominion, we write to you now to (1) demand that you stop and give up making defamatory claims against Dominion and (2) ensure that there are there is no confusion about its obligation to preserve and retain all documents related to Dominion and its smear campaign against the company, “says the letter to Giuliani, obtained by Insider.
Dominion’s lawyers sent a similar letter to Pat Cipollone, President Donald Trump’s attorney at the White House, also obtained by Insider. Both letters ask recipients to preserve copies of documents and communications “referring to or related in any way to Dominion”.
The existence of the letters was first reported by CNN.
For weeks, Giuliani has propagated the conspiracy theory that Dominion is in cahoots with Smartmatic, a rival electoral technology company, to develop software that would change votes in the November election of President-elect Joe Biden to President Donald Trump. The allegations have no basis in reality and have been repeatedly rejected by judges who oversaw electoral processes.
Dominion and Smartmatic have taken the offensive in recent weeks, after dozens of failed lawsuits by President Donald Trump and his allies seeking to overturn the results of the election he lost. Dominion hired Clare Locke LLC, a company specializing in defamation lawsuits, to represent them.
The conspiracy theory – which also includes complicated allegations about China and the now late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez – gained popularity for the first time through Sidney Powell, a lawyer who worked with Giuliani on the Trump campaign’s legal team. Powell was expelled from the legal team in late November, but Giuliani continued to make many of the same claims.
The letters warn Giuliani and Cipollone that they should keep copies of all correspondence with Powell, Jenna Ellis, also a campaign attorney for Trump, and Lin Wood, Trump’s ally lawyer, who theorizes conspiracy.
Tom Claire, who signed the letters, told Insider on Wednesday night that Dominion was still considering whether to file defamation lawsuits. For now, he said, he wanted to ensure that Giuliani and the White House attorney’s office preserved the documents for discovery.
Earlier this month, Dominion sent a letter to Powell demanding that she retract her claims and threatening to sue her for defamation as well.
Smartmatic sent requests for retraction to right-wing media organizations that propagated conspiracy theories, including Fox News, Newsmax and One America News. In response, Fox News ran a segment unmasking claims made about Smartmatic by its own anchors. Newsmax also featured a segment in which an anchor admitted he had “no evidence” about the claims made about Smartmatic and Dominion.
Although Powell recently attended several meetings at the White House, Giuliani sought to distance her from the White House, telling Newsmax that she “speaks for herself”.
Trump recently considered making Powell a special White House lawyer to investigate allegations of electoral fraud, according to the New York Times. Giuliani and Cipollone opposed the movement, according to the Times. Trump ended up abandoning the idea, according to the Daily Beast.
Legal ethics experts previously told Insider that Giuliani and Powell are “playing with fire” with their electoral conspiracy theory processes and are at risk of legal sanctions and possibly dismissal.
Giuliani did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
This article has been updated.