Dominion Voting Releases The Kraken On Sidney Powell

We hope she has $1.3 billion ready ...

While Sidney Powell was busy getting banned from Twitter this week, she also became a defendant in a federal lawsuit.

You love to see it.

As y'all well know already, favorite pastime of Sidney Powell is coming up with whackjob conspiracy theories. And a favorite target of hers is Dominion Voting Systems, which contracts with governments around the country to provide voting hardware and software for our elections.

Now, Dominion is suing Sidney Powell for $1.3 billion for her "viral disinformation campaign" that it says has destroyed the value of its business. 
 

  In US Dominion v. Sidney Powell , filed in federal court in DC, Dominion laws out all of the crazy shit Sidney Powell made up and vomitted all over Trumpland. Election experts have already noted that, despite absolutely zero evidence of any wrongdoing or even negligence, Dominion may not be able to survive Team Trump's attacks. Dominion makes its money as a government contractor, and if it can't convince local officials that it is reliable and trustworthy, it will be out of business. And this week's events have done a great job of clarifying just how many Americans are already really far gone — including some elected officials.

As a general matter, I don't really like defamation and libel lawsuits. All too often, they're petty bullshit filed by people who are mad that someone was mean to them. There are First Amendment implications when the government punishes people for speech, and I tend to struggle with courts deciding what speech is entitled to constitutional protection.

But if there was ever a defamation suit that was entirely earned, this is it. So I'm going to do something new for y'all, and, for once, mock the defendant in a defamation suit instead of the plaintiff.

Dominion releases the $1.3 billion kraken

Dominion has a LOT to say about all of Sidney's lies and spends 124 pages showing just how all of "Powell's wild accusations are demonstrably false." (Most complaints are in the 15 - 40 page range.)

It starts off with a lovely summary:

This defamation action arises from statements made by Sidney Powell, who—acting in concert with allies and media outlets determined to promote a false preconceived narrative about the 2020 election—caused unprecedented harm. During a Washington, D.C. press conference, a Georgia political rally, and a media blitz, Powell falsely claimed that Dominion had rigged the election, that Dominion was created in Venezuela to rig elections for Hugo Chávez, and that Dominion bribed Georgia officials for a no-bid contract.

I am continually amazed at just how dumb everything is. The fact that Dominion even has to refute an insane claim that dead Hugo Chavez somehow rigged the election for Joe Biden is ... really something. And the fact that it has to do this to refute the president's lawyer should scare us all.

Far from being created in Venezuela to rig elections for a now-deceased Venezuelan dictator, Dominion was founded in Toronto for the purpose of creating a fully auditable paper-based vote system that would empower people with disabilities to vote independently on verifiable paper ballots.

Oh and

there are mountains of direct evidence that conclusively disprove Powell's vote manipulation claims against Dominion—namely, the millions of paper ballots that were audited and recounted by bipartisan officials and volunteers in Georgia and other swing states, which confirmed that Dominion accurately counted votes on paper ballots.

Just to add insult to injury, Dominion also throws in this nice photo of poll watchers staring at the Georgia poll workers while they did their jobs.

It just really is incredible when you see all of Sidney's bullshit just laid out there for all to see.

Did Dominion bribe Georgia election officials? Only if you choose to believe Sidney Powell's photoshopping of a public document to create forged, false "evidence."

When respected Georgia Republicans disproved Powell's false accusations by announcing that Georgia's paper ballot recount had verified the accuracy of Dominion's vote counts, Powell sought to discredit them by falsely accusing Dominion of paying kickbacks to them and their families in return for a no-bid contract. The only "evidence" Powell ever put forward to support that false accusation was a doctored certificate from the Georgia Secretary of State. Powell has insinuated that the fact that the certificate is undated is suspicious. In reality, the authentic certificate is dated and is publicly available on the Georgia Secretary of State's website, along with public records showing there was a competitive bid process for the Georgia contract.

This description of Powell's "evidence" and "sources" is truly a work of art:

Although Powell assured the public during television and radio appearances that her claims were backed by "evidence," Powell's "evidence" included declarations from a motley crew of conspiracy theorists, con artists, armchair "experts," and anonymous sources who were judicially determined to be "wholly unreliable." One of Powell's wholly unreliable sources was a purported "military intelligence expert" who has now admitted that he never actually worked in military intelligence, that the declaration Powell's clerks wrote for him to sign is "misleading," and that he "was trying to backtrack" on it.4 After he was discredited, Powell pivoted by presenting his declaration as having been written by a different anonymous source.

Did Dominion's founder say on tape that he could change a million votes? Sidney said she had a video, so it must be real, right?!

lolno

Powell deliberately lied about having a video of Dominion's founder saying he could "change a million votes, no problem at all." Powell has never produced that recording because it does not exist.

The complaint also goes through all of the vote counting and recounting of alllllll the votes, reminding all of us for the umpteenth time that Joe Biden did, in fact, legitimately win the election. And it wasn't even particularly close, as far as presidential races go.

A little lawsplainin'

The plaintiffs in a defamation lawsuit have a pretty high bar, especially if they're a public figure. And as a Fortune 500 company that has involved itself in our elections, Dominion is probably considered a public figure. That means Dominion will have to show "actual malice" on Powell's part. To prove actual malice , Dominion will have to show that Powell knew what she was saying "was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not."

In most defamation cases, actual malice is pretty difficult to prove. Not so much here, where Powell has just spewed all sorts of garbage that appears to have originated on Parler and in her sad, twisted little mind.

As for how they came up with the number $1.3 billion, it's not just for damages they have suffered. Dominion is asking for $651,735,000 in compensatory damages and the same amount in punitive damages. Punitive damages exist to punish people when their behavior is so egregious that just awarding damages isn't enough.

This has been quite the week for schadenfreude and watching people finally start to reap what they sow.

Here's the complaint! All 124 pages of it.

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