Trump Campaign Knew Dominion Fraud Claims Were False, Memo Reportedly Shows—But Giuliani Still Pushed Them
The Trump campaign debunked election fraud claims involving Dominion Voting Systems’ voting machines days before Trump allies like attorney Rudy Giuliani started widely promoting those same allegations, court documents discovered by the New York Times show, suggesting the campaign knew the fraud claims were false but let them spread anyway.
Rudy Giuliani conducts a news conference on lawsuits regarding the outcome of the 2020 presidential election on November 19, 2020
KEY FACTS
The Trump campaign debunked election fraud claims involving Dominion Voting Systems’ voting machines days before Trump allies like attorney Rudy Giuliani started widely promoting those same allegations, court documents discovered by the New York Times show, suggesting the campaign knew the fraud claims were false but let them spread anyway.
KEY FACTS
- KEY FACTS
- According to the documents, released Monday in a state defamation case brought by Dominion’s security director Eric Coomer, the Trump campaign prepared an internal memo on November 14 at deputy communications director Zach Parkinson’s request that debunked multiple fraud allegations involving Dominion.
- The campaign memo debunked claims alleging Dominion and its leadership had ties to Venezuela and “left wing ‘antifa’ activists,” and that Dominion had used voting technology from rival voting machine Smartmatic, whose machines were also involved in election fraud claims.
- PROMOTED
- Less than a week later, Giuliani and far-right attorney Sidney Powell, who Giuliani said in a deposition were acting as “active supervisors” of the Trump campaign’s post-election legal challenges, pushed those same fraud claims about Dominion at a televised press conference at the Republican National Committee, in which they falsely alleged widespread election fraud and tied Dominion to Venezuela.
- Giuliani said in a deposition cited in the court documents he was unaware of the memo before his press conference and suggested the staffers that prepared it “wanted Trump to lose because they could raise more money,” the Times reports.
- The Times reports it is “unclear” whether former President Donald Trump, who has also pushed fraud claims involving Dominion, was aware of the memo, but notes members of the campaign “remained silent” about the allegations as they spread despite knowing they were untrue.
CRUCIAL QUOTE
“The memo produced by the Trump campaign shows that, at least internally, the Trump campaign found there was no evidence to support the conspiracy theories regarding Dominion,” Coomer’s attorneys wrote in the court filings, as quoted by the Times, arguing the campaign “continued to allow its agents … to advance debunked conspiracy theories and defame” Coomer, “apparently without providing them with their own research debunking those theories.”
CHIEF CRITIC
Trump allies including Powell, who’s facing multiple defamation lawsuits for her fraud claims, have continued to stand by the fraud allegations despite them being repeatedly debunked and legal challenges involving them failing in court. The far-right attorney recently described the purported fraud in the 2020 election as “essentially a bloodless coup where they took over the presidency of the United States without a single shot being fired” in a recent interview with the Australian Broadcasting Company.
KEY BACKGROUND
Coomer’s defamation lawsuit, which was brought in Colorado state court against the Trump campaign, Powell, Giuliani and other right-wing defendants, is one of numerous Dominion-led legal challenges seeking restitution for the Trump allies’ fraud claims. Dominion as a company has also filed defamation suits against Giuliani, Powell, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, Fox News, Newsmax, One America News Network and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne for spreading the election fraud claims involving their voting machines, which they allege have caused their company and its employees substantial harm. Coomer has already settled with Newsmax and has dropped the network from his litigation, and the network issued a statement acknowledging its voter fraud claims involving Coomer are untrue. Both Giuliani and Powell have also already faced consequences for their fraud claims: Giuliani’s law license has been suspended in New York and Washington, D.C., and Powell and her co-counsel were sanctioned in a Michigan case alleging fraud, which includes paying attorneys fees, mandatory legal education and being referred to the State Bar of Texas for potential disciplinary action or disbarment.
SURPRISING FACT
Though the Trump campaign did not acknowledge publicly that the Dominion allegations were untrue, the campaign did cut ties with Powell shortly after she pushed them during the November 19 press conference. The campaign said in a statement three days after the press conference that Powell “is not a member of the Trump Legal Team,” and is “also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity,” despite her being previously recognized as working directly with the campaign.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
Dominion’s lawsuits against Powell and Giuliani remain pending, though the court has ruled they can move forward. The evidence suggesting the Trump campaign was aware their claims about Dominion were false could affect that litigation and other potential lawsuits the company could bring, as the voting machine company and its attorneys have said they have still not ruled out bringing additional lawsuits against Trump allies—or the ex-president himself.
Trump Campaign Knew Dominion Fraud Claims Were False, Memo Reportedly Shows—But Giuliani Still Pushed Them (forbes.com)
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