An elections equipment manufacturer targeted by false conspiracy theories around the 2020 election is suing Newsmax and the owner of One American News Network (OANN), alleging the media outlets spread a deliberate disinformation campaign for profit.
Dominion Voting Systems is seeking about $1.6 billion in defamation damages from each of the two media outlets, both of which embraced various election conspiracy theories claiming that then-President Donald Trump should have won the 2020 election.
Dominion is also suing Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, a prominent Trump supporter and election conspiracy theorist, for $1.6 billion.
The lawsuits add to Dominion’s previous legal efforts to punish media outlets and individuals who spread the widely debunked theories. Dominion has previously sued Fox News, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, and lawyers Sydney Powell and Rudy Giuliani over similar claims.
State and federal election officials and security experts repeatedly attested that the 2020 presidential election was safe and secure, and numerous audits have found no substantiated discrepancies that would affect the election results. But supporters of former have pushed numerous unsubstantiated theories to explain why he actually won the election, often by making claims that Dominion’s equipment was involved in various schemes to alter the vote count.
“This barrage of lies by the defendants and others have caused — and continue to cause — severe damage to our company, customers, and employees,” Dominion CEO John Poulos said in an emailed statement. “We have no choice but to seek to hold those responsible to account.”
Representatives for Newsmax, OANN and Byrne didn’t return request for comment.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
