Judge Dropkicks Attempt To Dismiss Dominion Defamation Suit Against Powell, Giuliani, and Lindell

FAFO.

Yesterday a federal judge refused to dismiss Dominion Voting Systems' defamation claims against Sidney "Kraken" Powell, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Lindell, and the MyPillow company. Dominion is seeking $651 million from Powell alone. That's one expensive plate of calamari.

Dominion's multiple defamation filings have been called "speaking" complaints — which is a charitable way of saying they're too bloody long, clocking in at hundreds of pages each. But US District Judge Carl John Nichols's scathing order is a mere 44 pages, and he makes short work of recounting multiple statements from each defendant accusing Dominion of committing fraud and bribery on a massive scale.

The judge curb-stomped Powell's preposterous argument that "no reasonable person could conclude that her statements were statements of fact because they 'concern the 2020 presidential election, which was both bitter and controversial,' and were made 'as an attorney-advocate for [Powell's] preferred candidate and in support of her legal and political positions.'" [Citations omitted.]

Powell claimed that Dominion "flipped," "weighted," and "injected" votes and asserted that she had "evidence from [the] mouth of the guy who founded [Dominion] admit[ting that] he can change a million votes, no problem at all." Those are statements of fact, not opinion — either they're true, or they aren't. (Spoiler alert ...)

The court was no more receptive to Powell's argument that she was merely repeating allegations from sworn affidavits, particularly since she appears to have played fast and loose with the identities of the so-called expert witness affiants and appears to have done more than spell-check those affidavits herself.

"[T]here is no rule that a defendant cannot act in reckless disregard of the truth when relying on sworn affidavits—especially sworn affidavits that the defendant had a role in creating," the judge notes wryly.

And if Sidney Powell thought the court wouldn't notice that she'd submitted into evidence a doctored certificate from the Georgia secretary of state to make it look as if the licensing was rushed through perhaps because of "substantial sums of money being given to family members of state officials who bought this software," she thought wrong .

One little thing about Sidney Powell's Georgia "Kraken" lawsuit, courtesy of a helpful emailer. She argues that th… https: //t.co/HrZ2SO2vTt

— Brad Heath (@Brad Heath) 1606835228.0 

Lindell and Giuliani got less of the court's ire, but didn't escape entirely. Lindell maintains that it was reasonable to believe that Dominion committed fraud because a so-called expert witness told him it was true. Never mind that said witness also claims that "George Soros, President George H.W. Bush's father, the Muslim Brotherhood, and 'leftists' all had a role in forming the Nazi 'Deep State' in the 1930s." (Soros, who is Jewish, was born in 1930.) Lindell also cited an obviously fake spreadsheet with non-existent IP addresses as the basis for a rational belief in the truth of his accusations.

But a plaintiff can satisfy the legal requirements for actual malice by showing that something is so inherently improbable that only a reckless defendant would treat it as believable. Or, as the court put it, "a reasonable juror could conclude that the existence of a vast international conspiracy that is ignored by the government but proven by a spreadsheet on an internet blog is so inherently improbable that only a reckless man would believe it."

Mike Lindell RECKLESS? The devil you say! We're talking about a guy who countersued Dominion in Minnesota, asking a federal judge there to rule that the DC case amounts to defamatory RICO, which must have mightily impressed Judge Nichols and his counterpart in Minnesota, Judge Patrick J. Schlitz.

The court made short work of Giuliani's claims that Dominion had failed to plead its case in accordance with federal rules — you don't care about the details, just know that Judge Nichols said all three of Rudy's civil procedure arguments were crap. And the court wasn't having any of the defendants' arguments about jurisdiction and venue either, since all three of those dipshits manage to get their asses to DC to talk smack about Dominion on the regular.

In summary and in conclusion, these three assholes are in deep shit.

But don't worry, because Mike Lindell has A PLAN.

"As soon as I leave here I'm calling up Alan Dershowitz," a furious Lindell said yesterday to the attendees at his cyberpalooza when the ruling dropped. "He will be on the phone tomorrow and will tell you this judge's decision is terrible."

Well, that should do it.

[ US Dominion Inc. v. Powell , Docket via Court Listener]

Follow Liz Dye on Twitter!

Click the widget to keep your Wonkette ad-free and feisty. And if you're ordering from Amazon, use this link, because reasons .