Voting machine group calls for retractions from rightwing media
Lawyers for the voting machine firm on the centre of Donald Trump’s election conspiracy theories have demanded {that a} string of rightwing information shops retract claims they’ve made in regards to the firm in latest weeks.
A authorized agency working for Dominion Voting Systems has written to Fox News, two different rightwing networks — One America News Network and Newsmax — and the Epoch Times newspaper, insisting all of them retract allegations concerning the corporate’s position in final month’s election.
The legal professionals additionally despatched particular person letters to a few of America’s most well-known conservative presenters, together with Rush Limbaugh, the rightwing radio presenter, and three Fox News hosts: Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo.
The 21 letters, seen by the Financial Times, kind a part of an aggressive pushback by Dominion, which the president and his allies have accused, with out proof, of being a part of an enormous conspiracy to steal the election from him and ship victory to his opponent Joe Biden.
In the letter to Fox News, the legal professionals wrote: “We demand that Fox issue a retraction to make clear that there is simply no evidence to support the conspiracy theories that continue to smear the company’s good name.”
John Poulos, Dominion’s chief govt, mentioned on Wednesday that he anticipated to file authorized motion towards a number of the president’s allies sooner or later.
Mr Poulos told CNN on Thursday: “We did send a letter to several different people that have been spreading lies and defamatory remarks since election day on various different platforms.”
He added: “We fully expect that none of them will be retracting their statements, so it forces our hand to file action.”
Fox and Newsmax didn’t touch upon Dominion’s letters. OANN replied to
the corporate’s letters with a authorized letter of its personal, however didn’t deal with any of Dominion’s complaints straight.
The Epoch Times and Mr Limbaugh didn’t instantly reply to a request to remark.
Dominion’s legal professionals have focused their preliminary litigation at Sidney Powell, a lawyer who has helped unfold accusations that Hugo Chávez, the late Venezuelan chief, was behind a scheme to plant defective voting machines throughout the US. Mr Poulos on Thursday known as her “the most egregious and prolific purveyor of these lies”.
The firm’s legal professionals have additionally written to Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, and Rudy Giuliani, the president’s private lawyer, warning them to protect any paperwork that could possibly be related to a lawsuit.
The White House declined to remark. Neither Ms Powell nor Mr Giuliani responded to a request to take action.
Tom Clare, one among Dominion’s legal professionals, instructed the Daily Beast earlier this week he anticipated to file “multiple litigation matters” in January.
Smartmatic, one other voting machine firm that has been the topic of accusations by Trump allies, has additionally threatened authorized motion towards Fox News, Newsmax and One America News Network. The firm demanded the channels retract accusations that the corporate had conspired to repair the election for Mr Biden.
Following that menace, each Fox News and Newsmax aired segments debunking the claims. Fox broadcast an interview through which Eddie Perez, director of the Open Source Election Technology Institute, was questioned in regards to the claims by a voice from off-camera. Mr Perez then defined intimately why the allegations had been unfaithful.
Mr Trump’s claims of an enormous election fraud have been rejected by a number of organisations, together with his personal authorities’s cyber safety company, in addition to in court docket. William Barr mentioned simply earlier than stepping down as US attorney-general this week that there was no purpose to grab voting machines or appoint a particular counsel to look into voter fraud.
The president reportedly thought of giving Ms Powell a job on the White House to research electoral malpractice however is claimed to have since gone chilly on the thought.
