Sidney Powell, Lin Wood, And A Bunch Of Other Trump-Loving Lawyers Hit With Sanctions In Michigan

from the these-assholes-deserve-everything-coming-to-them dept

Former Trump lawyer/current conspiracy theorist/lawsuit defendant Sidney Powell has one more thing to add to her extremely dubious CV: sanctions.

The attorney general for the state of Michigan -- one of the states alleged to be the home of election fraud by Sidney Powell and her like-minded associates -- pressed for sanctions, using Powell's own statements against her. Powell claimed her statements about election fraud were nothing more than heated hyperbole that no reasonable person would have believed were facts when seeking to have Dominion Voting Systems' defamation lawsuit dismissed. Michigan's AG noted this same "hyperbole" formed the basis of the election fraud lawsuit she had filed in Michigan, which basically meant Powell expected the court to take her wild speculation as credible and potentially provable facts.

You can't have it both ways. Powell is now being sanctioned, along with several other lawyers (including L. Lin Wood) who participated in this harmful waste of government resources. The sanctions order [PDF] is a brutal masterpiece. It runs 110 pages and it details everything wrong about Powell's actions and allegations. Someone give Judge Linda Parker a raise.

This is the opening paragraph, which gives the reader a pretty good idea how the rest of the order is going to run. If that reader is one of the lawyers being sanctioned, this paragraph is a swift punch to the solar plexus. Unfortunately for those particular readers, it's only the first blow in a sustained, impeccably delivered beating.

This lawsuit represents a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process. It is one thing to take on the charge of vindicating rights associated with an allegedly fraudulent election. It is another to take on the charge of deceiving a federal court and the American people into believing that rights were infringed, without regard to whether any laws or rights were in fact violated. This is what happened here.

Don't even bother getting up, Powell and co. [Emphasis in the original.]

The attorneys who filed the instant lawsuit abused the well-established rules applicable to the litigation process by proffering claims not backed by law; proffering claims not backed by evidence (but instead, speculation, conjecture, and unwarranted suspicion); proffering factual allegations and claims without engaging in the required pre-filing inquiry; and dragging out these proceedings even after they acknowledged that it was too late to attain the relief sought.

And this case was never about fraud—it was about undermining the People’s faith in our democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so.

Blow after blow.

The sanctity of both the courtroom and the litigation process are preserved only when attorneys adhere to this oath and follow the rules, and only when courts impose sanctions when attorneys do not. And despite the haze of confusion, commotion, and chaos counsel intentionally attempted to create by filing this lawsuit, one thing is perfectly clear: Plaintiffs’ attorneys have scorned their oath, flouted the rules, and attempted to undermine the integrity of the judiciary along the way.

The multiple lawyers being sanctioned raise a variety of terrible arguments as to why they shouldn't be held accountable for their blatant abuse of the judicial system. The judge doesn't like any of them.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers argue that no attorney can be sanctioned whose name appeared only in typewritten form; that no attorney besides Plaintiffs’ local counsel has appeared or signed a document filed in this matter; and that the Court lacks jurisdiction to sanction any attorney who did not personally appear or sign a document filed in this matter. Yet, the local attorneys assert that, although they signed the filings, they did not prepare them and thus should not be responsible for them. As such, no attorney wants to take responsibility now that sanctions are sought for filing this lawsuit.

Wrong.

In this age of electronic filing, it is frivolous to argue that an electronic signature on a pleading or motion is insufficient to subject the attorney to the court’s jurisdiction if the attorney violates the jurisdiction’s rules of professional conduct or a federal rule or statute establishing the standards of practice. As set forth earlier, Sidney Powell, Scott Hagerstrom, and Gregory Rohl electronically signed—at least—the Complaint, Amended Complaint, and Motion for Injunctive Relief. The remaining attorneys, except Junttila, were listed as “Of Counsel” on one or more of the pleadings.

This is directed at Powell and her defamation lawsuit defense:

It is not acceptable to support a lawsuit with opinions, which counsel herself claims no reasonable person would accept as fact and which were “inexact,” “exaggerate[ed],” and “hyperbole.” Nor is it acceptable to use the federal judiciary as a political forum to satisfy one’s political agenda. Such behavior by an attorney in a court of law has consequences. Although the First Amendment may allow Plaintiffs’ counsel to say what they desire on social media, in press conferences, or on television, federal courts are reserved for hearing genuine legal disputes which are well-grounded in fact and law.

Then there's L. Lin Wood. He claims he shouldn't even be facing sanctions because he was not officially part of this lawsuit. The court points out Wood never made any mention about being improperly included in Powell's suit until he was facing sanctions. He also claimed he was never served by the state, but the state offered affidavits showing none of its electronic or physical mail sent to Wood was ever returned as undeliverable. Judge Parker serves up this succinct summation of Wood's claims, which could also serve as an epitaph for his Trump-era lawyering.

[W]ood is not credible.

This comes with a footnote attached that points out Wood's own brief in this case suggests he was made aware of the court order to appear in mid-June via phone call, contradicting his claim before the judge that he didn't know anything about it until reading about the sanctions effort in the newspaper.

But the most damning evidence that Wood is lying about his lack of awareness are his own tweets.

On January 5, 2021, the day the City filed the motion, Wood tweeted a link to an article with the motion, stating that it was “unfair” for the City to seek sanctions against him.

He also took credit for filing this lawsuit -- the one he now claims he was added to without his explicit permission -- in a filing before the Delaware Supreme Court.

Other attorneys trying desperately to distance themselves from this lawsuit now that it's sanctionable fare no better. Emily Newman claimed she only spent about "five hours" on the lawsuit and performed that work at home. So what? asks the court.

By placing her name on the initial and amended complaints, Newman presented pleadings to the Court asserting that Defendants committed constitutional and state law violations. Newman does not suggest that her name was included without her permission. In addition, Newman does not cite case law suggesting that an attorney may not be sanctioned under Rule 11 or any other source of sanctions authority if the time spent on the relevant lawsuit does not surpass an unidentified threshold. And Newman’s responsibility for any Rule 11 violation is not diminished based on where those working hours were spent (particularly during a global pandemic when many individuals were working remotely from home).

The same goes for Gregory Rohl, whose argument that he didn't spend much time on the lawsuit completely backfires.

To the extent Rohl asserts he should not be sanctioned because he read the pleading only on the day of its filing, the argument does not fly. Rule 11(b) “obviously require[s] that a pleading, written motion, or other paper be read before it is filed or submitted to the court,” and the Court finds it exceedingly difficult to believe that Rohl read an 830-page complaint in just “well over an hour” on the day he filed it. So, Rohl’s argument in and of itself reveals sanctionable conduct. Rule 11(b) also explains that, by presenting a pleading to the court, an attorney certifies that “to the best of the person’s knowledge, information, and belief, formed after a reasonable inquiry under the circumstances,” the complaint is not being filed for an improper purpose and is well-grounded in law and fact. The Court finds it even more difficult to believe that any inquiry Rohl may have conducted between the time he finished reading the Complaint and 11:48 p.m. could be described as a “reasonable” one.

Also sanctionable was the lawyers' refusal to dismiss the lawsuit once it had become moot. The legal theory cited isn't actually legal.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys maintain that this lawsuit was no longer moot after December 14 because three Plaintiffs subjectively believed that they had become electors. The attorneys cite no authority supporting the notion that an individual’s “[personal] opinion” that he or she is an elector is sufficient to support the legal position that the individual is in fact an elector. Of course, such a belief is contrary to how electors are appointed in Michigan.

This refusal resulted in more filings by those being sued, forcing them to expend time and money to address claims based on nothing more than speculation and a strong desire to return Trump to office. Very sanctionable.

The Court finds that Plaintiffs’ counsel unreasonably and vexatiously multiplied the proceedings in this case and their arguments to the contrary are unavailing.

And at this point, we're only halfway through the decision. I suggest you read the whole thing, but here are a few more highlights:

Apparently Throckmorton’s quotation of the maxim “fraud vitiates everything” is a refrain that has been oft-repeated on social media by those who question the results of the 2020 presidential election and believe Former President Trump should be declared the winner. The City is correct that Plaintiffs’ counsel’s citation to Throckmorton is puzzling, both because the case relates to a nineteenth-century land grant and has nothing to do with election law and because the Supreme Court held that the grant could not be collaterally attacked on the basis that the judgment was procured by fraud. Simply put, the case does not support Plaintiffs’ legal contentions directly or even by extension.

This is brief but brutal:

Plaintiffs alleged that certain acts or events violated the Michigan Election Code when, in fact, they did not.

The affidavits presented as evidence were just as garbage as the allegations:

To support the allegation that “unsecured ballots arrived at the TCF Center loading garage, not in sealed ballot boxes, without any chain of custody, and without envelopes, after the 8:00 PM Election Day deadline,” Plaintiffs quote the affidavit of Matt Ciantar (“Ciantar Affidavit”), which is a masterclass on making conjectural leaps and bounds.

In short, the affidavit describes Ciantar observing a vehicle delivering several bags to a post office. Everything else in it is the product of the affiant's overactive imagination. Ciantar felt the whole thing was "odd" and that the bags could have contained votes. That's it. The whole thing is included in the order, so feel free to vet the statement yourself (p. 71)

More on not doing due diligence:

When the Court asked whether Plaintiffs’ counsel inquired as to the affidavits copied and pasted from the other cases, Plaintiffs’ counsel dipped and dodged the question and did not disclaim the City’s counsel’s assertions that they did not.“[O]ther lawyers saw it” and “[t]hey believed it to be appropriate for submission to the Court in that circumstance,” Plaintiffs’ attorneys argued.

[...]

This is not okay. The Court remains baffled after trying to ascertain what convinced Plaintiffs’ counsel otherwise.

And then there's this hysterical First Amendment argument, which is capably dismantled by the judge.

In response to the State Defendants’ supplemental brief, instead of explaining what efforts they undertook to investigate the veracity of the affidavits, Plaintiffs’ attorneys argue that they “never stated that lawyers cannot be held to account.” “Instead,” they argue, the motion to dismiss “justifies lawyers being afforded the same type of Constitutional protections as journalists,” “who . . . would lose the protection afforded to them by the Supreme Court . . . if they were ‘drawn into long court battles designed to deconstruct the accuracy of sources on which they rely.’”

Attorneys are not journalists. It therefore comes as no surprise that Plaintiffs’ attorneys fail to cite a single case suggesting that the two professions share comparable duties and responsibilities. Perhaps this confused understanding as to the job of an attorney, and what the law says about the attendant duties and obligations, is what led Plaintiffs’ counsel to simply copy and paste affidavits from prior lawsuits. Perhaps not. But what is certain is that Plaintiffs’ counsel will not escape accountability for their failure to conduct due diligence before recycling affidavits from other cases to support their pleadings here.

Apparently even doing a bit of Googling was beyond the capabilities of the many lawyers involved in this fiasco.

Even the most basic internet inquiry would have alerted Plaintiffs’ counsel to the wildly inaccurate assertions in Ramsland’s affidavit.

This isn't the end of the order, but it pretty much sums everything up.

Counsel’s failure to “look beyond their prejudices and political beliefs” during this litigation and before filing this lawsuit strongly suggests improper motive. The evidence of bad faith and improper motive becomes undeniably clear when paired with the fact that Plaintiffs’ counsel violated Rule 11 in a multitude of ways. See supra. In other words, by failing to take the basic pre-filing steps that any reasonable attorney would have taken and by flouting well-established pleading standards—all while knowing the risk associated with failing to remain professionally skeptical, Plaintiffs’ counsel did everything in their power to ensure that their bias—that the election was fraudulent, as proclaimed by Former President Trump—was confirmed. Confirmation bias notwithstanding, Plaintiffs’ counsel advanced this lawsuit for an improper purpose and will be held to account for their actions.

Here's everyone that's affected by this sanction order, as listed on the Michigan attorney general's website:

Sidney Powell - Texas;  
L. Lin Wood - Georgia;  
Emily Newman - Virginia;  
Julia Z. Haller - the District of Columbia, Maryland, New York and New Jersey;  
Brandon Johnson - the District of Columbia, New York, and Nevada;  
Scott Hagerstrom - Michigan;  
Howard Kleinhendler - New York and New Jersey;  
Gregory Rohl - Michigan; and  
Stefanie Lynn Junttila - Michigan.

On top of this, other lawyers engaged in similar "election fraud" lawsuits are being hit with sanctions in Colorado. And the Texas Office of the Chief Disciplinary counsel is now looking into stripping Powell of her license.

Good. Fuck these guys. They decided to turn a sore loser's wild ass claims into legal proceedings, relying on a choir of the converted to provide supporting "evidence." And they refused to back down, even when the Department of Justice itself (while still headed by Bill Barr) found no evidence of election fraud. They played to the base and lost. They catered to conspiracy theorists and Trump loyalists that coalesced in a raid of the Capitol building in hopes of preventing certification of election results -- a raid that culminated in several deaths and several hundred criminal prosecutions.

Stunt lawyering has real consequences. These attorneys will now be paying the legal fees and costs incurred by the multiple Michigan government entities that were forced to defend themselves from this baseless lawsuit.

Filed Under: elections, fraud, kraken, lin wood, sanctions, sidney powell
Companies: dominion

Judge Says Voting Machine Company Can Continue To Sue Trump's Buddies Over Bogus Election Fraud Claims

from the but-will-they-be-judgment-proof-by-the-time-judgment-arrives? dept

A federal judge has said Dominion's lawsuit against a former Trump lawyer can move forward. Sidney Powell -- the self-proclaimed "Kraken" -- was supposed to storm into federal courts and present irrefutable evidence President Joe Biden's position as president had been fraudulently obtained.

Instead, Powell -- like several other pro-Trump lawyers with more time than common sense -- proved nothing but their own willful ignorance and inability to abide by the rules of their law licenses. Powell is not only facing a billion-dollar lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, but also possible sanctions in Michigan.

Powell has claimed her allegations against Dominion -- repeated in press conferences and court filings -- were just the heated rhetoric that often accompanies "disputed" elections (even if the Kraken was doing most of the disputing). While that may be a decent defense against defamation allegations (i.e., "no reasonable person would take my partisan shit-talking as statements of fact"), it kind of falls flat when the same allegations are presented as sworn allegations in court filings attempting to challenge the election outcome.

Powell's assertions that the alleged defamation was just crazy talk have dead-ended in federal court. As the court sees it, Dominion should be allowed to move forward and dig into the "these are/aren't facts" assertions by Sidney "Krack Happens" Powell. (h/t Brad Heath)

The court's dismissal [PDF] of Powell's motion to dismiss is this summer's best beach read because it casts so much shade it makes the heat waves tolerable. And while it's casting a long, low-key snarky shadow over Powell's attempt to escape a billion-dollar judgment, it refuses to let any of her co-conspiracy theorists off the hook, like Rudy Giuliani and one of the weirdest symptoms of late-stage capitalism, hyper-partisan bedding manufacturer, MyPillow.

How far away from facts did these defendants get (allegedly)? Welp:

Dominion alleges that each Defendant made defamatory statements about its role in the 2020 election. Those statements are too numerous to summarize in their entirety…

But many are still summarized. It takes several pages. A large portion of the alleged defamatory remarks were delivered via social media platforms and contained multiple exclamation points, which are considered marks of authenticity by the sort of people who are easily swayed by exclamation points.

The court also discusses Mike Lindell and MyPillow. It goes further than social media accounts. Lindell also runs his own production company, which has produced a "documentary" about the "fraudulent" 2020 election that is promoted nonstop by Lindell.

All three defendants want out of this lawsuit. Powell raises jurisdictional counterarguments as well as her patented "but I was just talking out of my ass!" defense. Giuliani asserts that Dominion's claims for damages are improper. And Lindell claims his company hasn't actually made any statements about the election, even if he's been using the company's money (and social media accounts) to make claims about the election.

None of this matters, at least as this point. Dominion's lawsuits can continue, says the court, while taking some shots at the attempting-to-flee defendants. As for Powell, the former Trump lawyer, there's this opening admonishment:

As an initial matter, there is no blanket immunity for statements that are “political” in nature…

And this:

Powell cannot shield herself from liability for her widely disseminated out-of-court statements by casting them as protected statements about in-court litigation; an attorney’s out-of-court statements to the public can be actionable, even if those statements concern contemplated or ongoing litigation.

For example:

Powell has stated publicly that she has “evidence from [the] mouth of the guy who founded [Dominion] admit[ting that] he can change a million votes, no problem at all.” PShe told audiences that she would “tweet out the video.” These statements are either true or not; either Powell has a video depicting the founder of Dominion saying he can “change a million votes,” or she does not.

Lindell and MyPillow get slapped even harder. The court notes that Lindell claims he can back up his statements with verifiable facts but has yet to present any evidence that supports his claims that Dominion "flipped" votes and conspired to throw the election for Biden. This sets the table for this amazing sentence by the court -- one that should make Lindell fear for his finances.

As a preliminary matter, 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.

If Lindell isn't staggered by this sentence, he's stupider than he appears. And this gets added on top of that:

Dominion also alleges that Lindell was made aware of that countervailing evidence in Dominion’s retraction letters, id. ¶¶ 63, 69, but—instead of reconsidering his claims in light of the mountain of evidence against them—doubled down and “dare[d] Dominion to sue [him],” id. ¶ 160.

Lindell must love compounding his mistakes. While this was being written, Lindell was in South Dakota hosting a 72-hour conspiracy theory-laden "cyber symposium" where he made additional claims about evidence he apparently doesn't possess that cannot possibly back the claims about Dominion he continues to make.

Giuliani's procedural motions are also tossed, allowing Dominion to continue to sue all three defendants. While it's unlikely Dominion will extract more than a billion dollars from any of the individual defendants, it seems unlikely any of these Trump-toadying loudmouths will escape the lawsuits unscathed. They played to Trump's base and are now in danger of losing. And it's guaranteed the man they idolize will do nothing to save them from the consequences of their Trump-enabled actions. When you're winning, Trump is willing to take part of the credit. But when you're losing, you're on your own.

Filed Under: defamation, elections, kraken, sidney powell, voting machines
Companies: dominion

Dominion Sues Newsmax, OAN, And The Head Of Overstock.Com For Election-Related Defamation

from the paper-tigers-asked-to-convert-allegations-to-USD dept

The failed insurrection may be over -- all but the Capitol cops ending their own lives after being assaulted by "law and order" types, who thought they could bypass the peaceful transfer of power with violence. (Fuck all those people, by the way -- all 500+ of them.) But the hope remains. It must have been stolen, say a collection of denialists and grifters. Let's win back the election process, say those unable to count votes or put their faith in the institution that put their boy in the White House in the first place (looking at you, Electoral College).

So the grift continues. So does the denialism. But it's going to start costing people some serious money. The people that decided that backdrafting Trump's odorous emanations following the November election are still theoretically on the hook for besmirching the election process and the machinery behind it.

While it's always appropriate to question the security and trustworthiness of election tech, it makes zero sense to air a bunch of insane conspiracies as actual fact. A bunch of acolytes thought they could call the presidential election into question if they amplified QAnon-level speculation into the public discourse. The stupidity of these actions has been called out by a frequent target of unvetted speculation: Dominion Voting Systems.

The challenges were only raised in areas where Trump expected to win but lost, indicating these "challenges" had nothing to do with election integrity. After all, if the integrity of the election was in question, wouldn't these people be questioning election results where Trump won? Everyone knows it's a façade -- a carelessly edited sermon to the converted. Playing to the base usually pays off. But it may not in these cases.

Dominion has been suing over these false statements, implications, and complete, utter bullshit. The company first targeted Trump legal figures (both past and present) like Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani. Now it's coming for Trump's favorite non-gorilla-related programmers: One America Network and Newsmax. Both companies stepped up during Trump's last couple of years mismanaging the country to prove they could be even further right than far-right mainstay Fox News.

Two more lawsuits have been filed by Dominion. They reiterate many of the same allegations raised against Powell and Giuliani. That shows "Republican" figureheads have all been operating off the same cheat sheet when it comes to contesting the parts of the election they don't like.

I won't quote the latest lawsuits by Dominion at length. We've already covered the lies and misinformation spread by defendants who now claim this was all just heated rhetoric and hyperbole (even when portraying these same claims as "evidence" of voter fraud in lawsuits where they were the plaintiff). It's all more of the same: a debunking of literally incredible claims by defendants willing to sell out their credibility (if not their defamation insurance providers) by attaching themselves like so many remora on a shark in the midst of capsizing in its own wake.

Here's one representative accusation (taken from Dominion's suit [PDF] against One America Network):

OAN spread these lies by broadcasting and promoting interviews with discredited figures such as Sidney Powell, Rudolph Giuliani, Patrick Byrne, and Mike Lindell. But OAN went further, helping create and nurture the false and fabricated Dominion narrative by endorsing, promoting, and manufacturing these known falsehoods, including by pointing to the so-called “evidence” OAN was broadcasting in support of these lies and by falsely claiming the lies had corroborated “all of our investigations.”

To capitalize on the interest its target audience had in the false Dominion narrative, OAN effectively deputized its Chief White House Correspondent, Chanel Rion, as an in-house spokesperson for all Dominion-related content. After priming its viewers with a steady diet of post-election programming falsely claiming Dominion rigged the 2020 election, OAN and Rion began producing an entire line of programming exclusively devoted to defaming Dominion, descriptively named “Dominion-izing the Vote,” which branded OAN’s disinformation and defamation campaign against Dominion into a single catchy phrase that is now synonymous with fraudulently flipping votes.

How much of this will be determined to be defamation rather than heated electoral-related rhetoric remains to be seen. But enough Trump acolytes decided it was better to tongue the ex-presidential boot than protect themselves from billions of dollars of defamation damages. And that's fine. The law protects the assertions of inveterate assholes. But it doesn't protect the supposedly factual claims of people not in possession of actual facts. That's libel. And that's going to add up to real money should a court decide Dominion is in the right.

Dominion has also sued [PDF] Patrick Byrne, the Overstock.com founder. Someday the time capsule will be exhumed and our descendants will wonder how a pillow salesman and an internet entrepreneur became inextricably entangled in presidential politics. Wikipedia's explanation of "dark money" will likely fail to clarify anything. But Byrne better have a satisfactory explanation for his decision to translate his late-stage-capitalism failures into election theft electioneering. LOL deeply at the opening sentence:

After blowing up his career at Overstock by having an affair with a Russian spy, Patrick Byrne soon found himself a new pet project: promoting the false narrative that the 2020 election had been stolen. In fact, as Byrne has publicly admitted, he had already committed to that narrative three months before the election took place. After the election, Byrne manufactured and promoted fake evidence to convince the world that the 2020 election had been stolen as part of a massive international conspiracy among China, Venezuelan and Spanish companies, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”), the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), prominent Republicans, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Dominion, which, Byrne falsely claimed, committed fraud and helped steal the 2020 presidential election.

Don't be shitty, Patty. You're too smart for that, alleges Dominion.

Byrne was not hoodwinked by the ex-con or the conspiracy-theorists-for-hire. He is far too intelligent to buy the nonsense he has been selling to the American public. He is a Dartmouth-educated Marshall Scholar with a PhD from Stanford who, until he was pushed out in disgrace in 2019, had a national platform as the CEO of a multi-billion-dollar company. By lying about the 2020 election, Byrne catapulted himself back into the national spotlight, where he promoted himself as an “us-against-the-world” hero, and won access to the highest echelons of political power, including an in-person meeting with Trump at the White House.

LOL. This is Dominion preemptively striking any motions by Byrne saying he was just talking out of his ass. He had to know what he said was not only false, but demonstrably false. And yet he chose to do it anyway.

Dominion has a high bar to meet in its defamation lawsuits. Good. That's the way it should be. If defendants can indicate they were just being hyperbolic when discussing election issues, that protects the rest of us who don't have internet startups or pillow companies to absorb the blows of speech-related lawsuits. But Dominion's suits appear to allege defendants knew they were trafficking in lies but chose to do so anyway. And that certainly shouldn't protect the Sydney Powells and OANs of the world from putting their reputations (and liquid funds) at stake to stump for an obstinate failure and his inability to accept reality.

Filed Under: defamation, election, election integrity, patrick byrne, voting, voting machines
Companies: dominion, newsmax, oan, oann

MyPillow CEO Sues Dominion For Violating His Company's Right To Say The Things About Election Fraud It Definitely Isn't Saying

from the [rereads-headline]-...-look,-I-just-work-here... dept

Trump supporter and pillow manufacturer Mike Lindell was among those sued for defamation by Dominion Voting Systems over weeks of wild allegations about voter fraud that followed Donald Trump's loss at the polls in the 2020 election. Mike Lindell and his company, MyPillow, joined such luminaries as Rudy Giuliani and former Trump legal team member Sidney Powell as a recipient of a billion-dollar libel lawsuit.

Now, Mike Lindell is fighting back. He's attempting to dismiss Dominion's lawsuit, claiming his alleged libel was nothing more than heated commentary touching on important political issues. More credibly, he's asking his company to be dismissed from the lawsuit because his company did not make any of the statements Dominion is suing over.

Less credibly, he's filed a lawsuit [PDF] of his own against Dominion, claiming that naming his company as a defendant in a lawsuit somehow violates his company's rights. Considering this suit is only supposed to be about Dominion's "silencing" of MyPillow, the complaint spends a lot of its run time trotting out supporting evidence for the claims about Dominion Lindell says his company never made.

That leads to some really weird assertions by Lindell, like the claim that naming a company in a lawsuit is an attempt to silence anyone associated with MyPillow and/or allegations of election fraud.

Dominion’s true purpose is not simply to silence Mike Lindell, but to silence anyone else who might speak out on election fraud. Thus, Dominion also sued the company Mike Lindell founded, MyPillow, and hence its hundreds of employees, some of whom are co-owners. Dominion did not sue MyPillow because MyPillow made statements about Dominion. MyPillow made no such statements. Instead, by suing MyPillow, Dominion seeks to punish MyPillow’s CEO, Mike Lindell, for his statements. Dominion also seeks to send a message to others: “Shut up or else.”

But who is Dominion shutting up? Lindell claims it's trying to silence MyPillow, even though he also claims there's nothing to be silenced.

Having never commented on the election or Dominion, MyPillow has nonetheless borne the full wrath of Dominion’s illegal campaign of intimidation.

So, the speech MyPillow isn't engaging in needs to be protected… otherwise it won't feel comfortable continuing to not offer its opinion on topics of public debate.

Dominion is using the legal process as a weapon to suppress free speech. In contrast, MyPillow brings this action to open debate and expand free speech. Indeed, MyPillow would move this entire debate to the public square for a full airing of all facts and opinions on the subject. This lawsuit is brought in support of the marketplace of ideas and to remedy the grave harm that has been suffered by MyPillow as a result of Dominion’s suppression of speech and attacks on the Company.

Now, there may be some "grave harm" to be examined, but probably not under these claims. MyPillow has lost customers due to Mike Lindell's actions (and reactions to those actions, like Dominion's libel lawsuit). But none of that can plausibly be traced to Dominion adding MyPillow as a defendant in a civil lawsuit, especially since it's likely to be dropped as a defendant once the court handles Lindell's motion to dismiss.

Then there's the question of how one private company (Dominion Voting Systems) can violate the rights of another private company (MyPillow), especially when the only thing involved at this point is a single libel lawsuit. Lindell theorizes Dominion is actually a government actor and that's how rights can be violated. But even if Dominion is considered a government actor, its government work is limited to production and support of voting software and hardware. The lawsuit brought against Lindell for defamation is not part of its government role.

What follows these accusations is a bunch of narrative that supposedly supports the claims about Dominion Lindell says MyPillow never made. Then it's back to the action, where Dominion suing a handful of people for libel is every censorial cliche all at once.

Dominion’s campaign descends from a long and sad history in this country, the McCarthy era in which lives and organizations were destroyed, and families torn apart, for being labeled a Communist. Just as during that era being associated with a suspected Communist could end a professional career, so too today, those who, like MyPillow are merely associated with a critic of Dominion and the integrity of the 2020 election, face expulsion from public life in large parts of America. Dominion is using today’s cancel culture to eliminate dissent and to cover up the election issues that compromised the 2020 result.

Oh, McCarthyism? As in Sentor Joseph McCarthy, an actual government actor? Or is this some off-brand McCarthyism that can only be waged by private contractors supplying tech to government agencies? Cancel culture should help fill out your batshit lawsuit bingo cards, although it is disappointing Lindell never chooses to refer to Dominion as "woke."

And then there's more about how much MyPillow has been harmed:

Even giant, publicly traded retailers are not immune from public opinion and political pressures. Fearing retribution in the marketplace, many of MyPillow’s commercial suppliers and buyers have as a direct result of Dominion’s crusade terminated longstanding relationships with MyPillow which were projected to grow.

If Lindell was being honest, he would understand it was his public statements that caused this to happen, not Dominion's lawsuit. The list of things that have happened to MyPillow -- including the loss of social media accounts and employees being harassed -- can be directly tied to Lindell's "heated political commentary." You know, the baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud that have yet to be proven anywhere.

This sort of thing may work in a motion to dismiss:

MyPillow has never entered the public debate about the 2020 election; again, it has made no statement about Dominion whatsoever.

But it makes absolute zero sense in a standalone lawsuit filed by MyPillow, especially when its followed by this:

Defendants’ illegal campaign to punish and silence their critics violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment as applied to the states and their political subdivisions and agents under the Fourteenth Amendment and 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

According to Lindell's own claims, MyPillow is not, nor has it ever been, a critic of Dominion. You can't sue over speech you haven't made. You can make a claim about prior restraint, but that's going to fail because Dominion isn't a government entity, nor has it secured a court order forbidding Lindell's company from "entering the public debate."

Just really amazing stuff in here:

Defendants’ reprisal actions were motivated, at least in part, by MyPillow’s and its CEO’s exercise of their free speech rights protected under the First Amendment and, as applied against the states and their political subdivisions and agents, the Fourteenth Amendment.

Again, the rights Lindell swears MyPillow isn't utilizing.

Galaxy brain litigation:

As the result of Defendants’ actions, and as expected and intended by them, Plaintiff suffered the loss of substantial property interests, including, but not limited to, loss of long-standing business relationships, loss of supplier contracts, and loss of access to promotional access in media.

Plaintiff was not provided due process in connection with the loss of its property interests caused by Defendants.

I guess Lindell is unaware of the lawsuit he's currently trying to dismiss. That litigation is due process exemplified. Dominion has made accusations. Lindell is being given the opportunity to dispute those allegations. This is literally the due process he's claiming has been denied him by Dominion's lawsuit. (Also, Dominion isn't a government entity so the rights violation claims are still utterly ridiculous even without this absurdity piled on top.)

To sum up: the claims will fail because they are terrible, but mostly because they are also being brought against a non-government entity under the theory that it's actually a government entity. I assume the judge handling this will read it as a motion to dismiss that was filed in the wrong court and kindly ask Lindell to stop wasting the court's time.

Filed Under: 1st amendment, defamation, free speech, mike lindell, pillows
Companies: dominion, dominion voting systems, mypillow

Michigan AG Using Former Trump Lawyer Sidney Powell's 'No Reasonable Person Would Believe Me' Statements To Seek Sanctions Against Her

from the you-can-have-your-legal-defense-or-your-law-license,-but-not-both dept

In January -- shortly after the failed DC insurrection -- Dominion Voting Systems sued former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell for defamation over her repeated assertions the company was somehow involved in "stealing" the election for President Joe Biden.

As evidence of these extraordinary claims, Powell -- the self-proclaimed "kraken" -- offered up a bunch of hearsay and conjecture from QAnon-addled conspiracy theorists who took a break from trying to link prominent Democrats to ritualistic child abuse to link Dominion to a deceased Venezuelan dictator.

Accusations of vote rigging/stealing were made by Powell -- not just during press conferences and TV appearances -- but in court as sworn statements of fact. Powell's response to this lawsuit was to basically claim everyone who heard her allegations knew they were little more than heated hyperbole and expressions of her opinion.

Apparently, "everyone" also covered the judges handling her lawsuits in which she claimed her assertions were solid, fact-based, and worthy of exploration. Claiming "no one takes me seriously" may help Powell escape a defamation lawsuit, but it doesn't help her when it comes to her litigation where these same claims were expected to be taken seriously by federal courts.

Sidney Powell's inadvertent self-sabotage continues. Powell's best defense against Dominion's billion-dollar lawsuit is now being used by Michigan officials to argue the lawyer to be legally-sanctioned for lying to the courts. As Adam Klasfield reports for Law & Crime, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is wielding Powell's own statements against her to seek sanctions.

“These attorneys seemingly made statements they knew were misleading in an effort to further their false and destructive narrative,” Nessel wrote in a statement on Wednesday. “As lawyers, fidelity to the law is paramount. These individuals worked to further conspiracy theories in an effort to erode public trust in government and dismantle our systems of democracy. Their actions are inexcusable.”

Pretty much. You can't litigate using the same allegations you later claim aren't actual statements of fact. While there are some protections against defamation lawsuits for statements made in court cases, that doesn't extend to claims made in public. And when both sets of claims are pretty much identical, it becomes a real problem when you assert "no reasonable person" would believe they were "statements of fact" when that group of reasonable people now includes federal judges.

This move for sanctions is on top of the state's attempt to get Powell disbarred for attempting to overturn the state's 2020 election results with litigation state officials claimed crossed ethical lines. Governor Gretchen Whitmer's complaint against Powell make it's clear the state's serious about preventing Powell from practicing law in the state:

By filing a frivolous lawsuit based on false statements and by brazenly attempting to disenfranchise Michigan voters during the recent presidential election, she engaged in grave attorney misconduct.

Her defense in the Dominion lawsuit looks like it's going to cost her even more than what Dominion may eventually extract from Powell via its lawsuit. The best course of action would have been to not do any of the things Powell did months ago. A steady stream of stunt litigation based on allegations apparently compiled by legal experts on 4chan is a great way to find yourself out of a job and a whole lot of money.

Filed Under: dana nessel, defamation, michigan, sanctions, sidney powell
Companies: dominion

Dominion Sues Rudy Giuliani For $1.3 Billion Over False Statements About Its Voting Systems

from the enjoy-your-self-inflicted-shitshow,-Rudy dept

During the runup to the presidential election, through the election, past the election, past the Electoral College vote, past the states' certification of votes, multiple recounts and investigations, all the way up until VP Mike Pence was due to certify the vote, Donald Trump and his squad of sycophants claimed -- without evidence -- the election was fraudulent.

These claims -- buttressed by public statements, heated tweets, and multiple baseless lawsuits -- lit a fuse that triggered a January 6th explosion when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building in a futile attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election.

Roughly a week after the insurrection, Dominion Voting Systems -- accused of being a tool of the corrupt Venezuelan government -- sued one of the more batshit extensions of Trump's legal army, Sidney Powell. The defamation suit accused Powell of lying about pretty much everything related to Dominion.

Unfortunately for Dominion, it is a public figure so it's going to have to prove deliberately false statements were made by people who knew the claims were false when they made them. Powell might be able to walk away from this suit, despite all of her false statements. Some were made in court which makes those claims immune from lawsuits. But others were made in public and those might end up costing her some money. Truth is the absolute defense to immunity but being a living, breathing caricature who embraces every galaxy brain conspiracy theory that floats by in the internet flotsam is also a defense. And that defense is "no one takes me seriously so it's unlikely any reasonable people took my wild-ass lying claims about Dominion seriously either." If Alex Jones can use it, so can Sidney Powell.

Dominion's next target is Rudy Giuliani, someone who echoed a bunch of Powell's wild claims and continued to do so as the Trump campaign (and other pro-Trumpers) lost lawsuit after lawsuit attempting to overturn election results.

Giuliani's escapades as Trump's legal rep have made it possible for him to make the same claim in his defense: that he's so devoid of credibility no reasonable person would take his claims seriously. But Dominion's lawsuit [PDF] makes a good case for a finding of actual malice by pointing out certain actions taken (or not taken) by Giuliani that strongly suggest he knew his public anti-Dominion statements were false.

The opening paragraph spells it out succinctly:

During a court hearing contesting the results of the 2020 election in Pennsylvania, Rudy Giuliani admitted that the Trump Campaign "doesn't plead fraud" and that "this is not a fraud case." Although he was unwilling to make false election fraud claims about Dominion and its voting machines in a court of law because he knew those allegations were false, he and his allies manufactured and disseminated the "Big Lie," which foreseeably went viral and deceived millions of people into believing that Dominion has stolen their votes and fixed the election.

The lawsuit runs 107 pages, but that's the crux of it. Giuliani made a lot of false public statements about Dominion, but he refused to make those claims in court. When lawsuits were filed, Giuliani wasn't about to turn his press conference ravings into sworn statements. That's a pretty solid indicator Giuliani had his doubts about some of the things he was saying publicly about Dominion. But it didn't stop him from saying these things publicly. It didn't stop him from making an alleged $20,000/day as Trump's legal rep. And it didn't stop him from shilling products on his podcasts and YouTube videos, where he repeated his false claims.

And there's a strong argument for damages. Almost anything Trump, Giuliani, and other pro-Trump litigators said about stolen elections and Dominion's involvement went viral. Dominion's reputation has certainly been harmed. There's a whole subset of Americans out there who fervently believe Dominion voting machines run on software developed by a company allegedly run by deceased dictator Hugo Chavez -- software apparently created solely for the purpose of stealing votes and elections. No part of this allegation is true and Dominion uses no software created by this company. But thousands -- if not millions -- of people still believe this, even though no evidence has surfaced to back these claims.

And, despite this lack of evidence, Giuliani has refused to retract any of his false claims. If Dominion can surmount the "actual malice" bar in this case, the former New York mayor (and current MAGA madman) could be out of a whole lot of his $20k/day money. Dominion is asking for $1.3 billion in damages. It will certainly not be awarded this amount even if it wins, but the damages will still be sizable and it may be able to recover its legal fees on top of it.

This isn't a slam dunk case but it's still going to be very difficult for Giuliani to get this one dismissed. A man who beclowned himself for Trump and his base is going to have a hard time talking himself out of this one.

Filed Under: actual malice, defamation, rudy giuliani, sidney powell
Companies: dominion, dominion voting systems