The company that manufactures voting machines has followed through on its threat and filed a $1.3 billion lawsuit in the federal district court in DC against nutjob erstwhile Trump lawyer Sidney Powell. I was aware of some of the wild allegations she had made against the company as being part of a vast conspiracy to deny Trump victory but the filing contains much, much more. Pages 3, 4 and 5 contain all the outlandish assertions that Powell has made.
I do not like companies using their greater financial resources to seek massive damages against individuals, even those as recklessly idiotic as Powell. It is obvious that she does not have billions of dollars so this is just meant to scare the heebie-jeebies out of her. I hope she recants and apologizes and they drop their suit.
If that does not happen, that raises the questions: Will Trump pardon Powell? And does the presidential pardon power extend to civil cases?
As a sideshow it should be noted that congressperson Louie Gohmert and Sidney Powell had filed an appeal to the US Supreme Court no less arguing that Pence has the power to overturn the Electoral College votes. This was filed on January 6th, the day of the riot, after the certification process had started and Pence had issued a letter saying that he does not have that power. They seem to be taking the sentiment ‘better late than never’ a little too far.
Rob Grigjanis says
Apparently not.
StonedRanger says
Once upon a time I had wished that once trump lost we would never have to hear his name again, but his name is going down in history alongside names like Jefferson Davis, Benedict Arnold, and George Armstrong Custer. His name will be like Timex, takes a licking and keeps on ticking. Please, make it go away.
garnetstar says
OTOH, never have I seen a company more potentially damaged by such high-level defamation as Dominion. That’s all they do, make voting machines. The kinds and quantity of libels that Powell has done would destroy them, if unchallenged or believed.
That said, because it’s quite likely that no potential Dominion customer will ever take those libels seriously, I also hope that Dominion comes to a settlement with Powell, that allows her to recant and to learn that she should work on keeping her vivid fantasy life to herself.
You think she’ll act as her own lawyer? Because, if so, I *really* want to read her filings! Especially about how Chavez directed this all from the grave: I’m making extra popcorn.
Matt G says
Repubs and evangelical Christians have hitched their wagon to DT. May they all go down together.
Intransitive says
Dominion Voting Systems is a Canadian company. Cheetolini can potentially pardon Powell’s big mouth south of the 49th, but he has no clout north of it. If legal action is taken in Canada, he can’t protect or exempt her from it. Keep in mind that Canada’s speech laws are not like the US. You can actually be held accountable for what you say, and if jurisdiction extends internationally….
xohjoh2n says
@5 Given that this lawsuit is not going to go anywhere inside of one week, Trump is not going to be able to do squat about it on any side of any border.
Reginald Selkirk says
I would like to see a lawsuit for damages by the family of officer Sicknick against Donald Trump.
garnetstar says
@7, I am told that legally such a lawsuit is indeed a thing, and that Trump’s advisors are telling him to watch out for his civil liability in all of the deaths. Morever, criminal charges of felony murder for the officer’s death are apparently possible, though not all that likely.
They’re also warning Trump that if he pardons himself, that’ll be used as evidence against him in the families’ suits for damages. Poor litlle fella, what a pickle he’s in, huh?
bluerizlagirl . says
Surely the disproof of such outrageous claims can be found within in the published engineering drawings and specifications for the voting machines?
Something as important as the democratic process is more important than “intellectual property”; and given the ease with which someone on the inside could manipulate an election result, any government would order the blueprints to be published as a condition of approval, precisely so anybody with the required level of understanding could scrutinise the operation of the machines.
sonofrojblake says
“the published engineering drawings and specifications for the voting machines”
Sadly I fear if they published those drawings (and full details of the software) someone like Marcus Ranum would quickly identify twenty ways they could be compromised. Not proof they were -- proof they could have been. It’s one of his favourite subjects: EVERYTHING is backdoored up the wazoo.
billseymour says
bluerizlagirl @9:
sonofrojblake @10:
Here’s hoping that the blueprints, but more importantly the source code, get released. I’d love to read Marcus’ blog post about it! 😎
Reginald Selkirk says
B.C. billionaire given the green light to sue Twitter over ‘Pizzagate’ tweets