Trump called Dominion Voting Systems “a disaster”, and his supporters defended the conspiracy theory that the company erased votes for Trump on his voting equipment and that Dominion’s director of product and security strategy Eric Coomer helped to subvert the election.
The suit names the Trump campaign as defendant Rudy Giuliani, Trump adviser Sidney Powell, the conservative media One America News Network and Newsmax Media, the right-wing Gateway Pundit website and Colorado businessman and activist Joseph Oltmann among others. CNN contacted those mentioned in the lawsuit.
In the past few days – as the threat of legal action became greater and greater – several conservative media outlets have begun to roll back some of the most outrageous claims.
In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in the Colorado district court, Coomer’s lawyers say the allegations are “false and baseless” and have caused “immense damage to Dr. Coomer’s reputation, professional standing, security and privacy”.
The lawsuit says the defendants “relied heavily on false claims” made by Oltmann, who said in interviews and social media posts that Coomer participated in an Antifa conference call that Oltmann said he infiltrated in September.
Asked about Antifa’s alleged connection, Oltmann told CNN that he has “a treasure trove of evidence” – which he did not provide immediately – and said “the truth is the great equalizer in all of this”.
Coomer’s lawyers denied that the Dominion executive was aware of the alleged call, participated in it or made such comments.
He is seeking damages, as well as the public retraction of all statements deemed defamatory.
In a statement on Tuesday, Coomer said the lawsuit is “an effort to undo as much damage as possible to me, my family, my life and my livelihood as a result of the numerous false public statements by which I was of somehow responsible ‘manipulating’ the 2020 presidential election. “
The Domain itself does not participate in the process.
The Denver-based company, however, said in a statement to CNN that “Sidney Powell and many others – including some news organizations – have trampled on numerous reputations by promoting their ridiculous conspiracy theories.”
The memo, seen by CNN, references a letter that Dominion sent Powell last week demanding that she publicly withdraw her charges and instructs the campaign team not to alter, destroy or discard records that may be relevant.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Kevin Liptak, Pamela Brown and Brian Rokus contributed to this report.