'We're Looking at Every Bad Faith Actor': Dominion CEO Tells Chris Cuomo His Company Hasn't Ruled Out More Defamation Lawsuits
By Reed RichardsonJan 25th, 2021, 10:52 pm
The head of the voting machine company at the center of the former President Donald Trump's "big lie" about election fraud said his legal team is looking every "bad faith actor" spreading disinformation about the firm and hasn't ruled out filing more defamation lawsuits going forward.
Speaking with CNN's Chris Cuomo, Dominion Voting Systems CEO John Poulos hinted that his company could expand the number of legal targets in its campaign to fight false and damaging claims. So far, Dominion has filed two lawsuits, against Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and unofficial legal advocate Sidney Powell, both of whom have repeatedly pushed outlandish and totally debunked theories about the company's role in the 2020 election.
"We have no choice," Poulos told the CNN host. "What we're seeing right now, I don't think we've ever seen before and it's affecting certainly our good name and it's raising serious doubts in electors' minds across the country. And, frankly, it's the only avenue that we have to rectify the situation."
Dominion has sent legal warning shots to several other media sites and public figures in the past few weeks. In mid-January, the pro Trump online magazine, American Thinker, issued a damning and widespread retraction of its many false claims about the company after receiving a lengthy demand letter from Dominion's lawyers. Days later, the far right and conspiracy-ridden cable network, One America News, was found to have quietly deleted more than a dozen inaccurate stories about Dominion, possibly in response to legal threats. And last week, MyPillow CEO and would-be election coup plotter Mike Lindell was likewise hit with a cease-and-desist order about his frequent, false public statements alleging the company's machines somehow switched millions of votes.
When Cuomo noted the stunning monetary claim in its lawsuits — $1.3 billion — he followed up by asking if the company had lost any contracts.
"The 1.3 billion, there's certainly a lot of questions on that," Poulos acknowledge. There is no money, Chris, that can even begin to make up for the damage in reputation that our company and the customers, the election officials that have used our technology to count ballots. And the actual calculation is a legal calculation and we will play that out in court. But if I could trade our reputation back from November 1st and go back before these false accusations were lobbed against us and our employees, I would do that in a heartbeat."
Cuomo then pointed out that Giuliani was already blustering against the suit, which he called an "act of intimidation," and that the legal effort would open up the company to discovery requests from its defendants.
"You have no fear of any type of exposure?" he pressed.
"Our space is so highly regulated, all of our source code, all of our pieces of technology are submitted to federal and state authorities for independent testing. They have all our equipment," Poulos explained. "We don't actually run elections. We supply technology for election officials to help voters vote and to help count paper ballots. And when there is any kind of indecision or concern regarding the scrutiny of the election, election officials hand count all of the paper ballots. They either do it in audits or they do a full recount, as was the case in the state of Georgia."
"This is something that needs to be done. So our history is an open book," Poulos added. "It's something that we have testified to various authorities on, including Congress, and we welcome it."
Cuomo then asked Poulos why his company had just singled out Giuliani and Powell for actual defamation suits. And the Dominion CEO made clear it was not done considering others who defamed the company by pushing Trump's absurd conspiracy theories.
"We are looking at every bad faith actor that has deliberately created and propagated a falsehood about Dominion and the processes we were involved in," he explained. "So our legal team is looking at frankly everyone."
Watch the video above, via CNN.
Chris CuomoConspiracy TheorydefamationDominionDonald Trumpelection fraudJohn PouloslawsuitRudy GiulianiSidney Powell
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