Mellissa Carone alongside Rudy Giuliani in Michigan.
Lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems blamed Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani for the mob violence that erupted on Jan. 6 after Giuliani, President Donald Trump and others riled up a crowd of supporters in Washington, D.C. who baselessly believed the election was stolen and handed to Joe Biden by Dominion voting machines.
“While tragic, the violence at the Capitol was the entirely foreseeable result of your false, but widely publicized claims that the election was stolen by Dominion’s corrupt vote-flipping machines,” said the letter, dated Jan. 10. “The coordinated disinformation campaign that you launched and sustained—in concert with Sidney Powell, other allies, and media outlets determined to promote a false preconceived narrative— have irreparably damaged American democracy, have destroyed Dominion’s reputation, and have caused Dominion hundreds of millions of dollars in harm.”
This is the second such letter Dominion’s lawyers Thomas Clare and Megan Meier have sent Giuliani. Dominion recently sued Giuliani ally Sidney Powell for defamation. The lawyers said Giuliani should “publicly and forcefully retract” his false claims and “apologize for inciting the sacking” of the Capitol through a campaign of falsehoods against the company that began in Nov. 2020.
The attorneys cited Giuliani’s “trial by combat” rhetoric at the “Save America Rally” on Jan. 6. At the rally, Giuliani said—again claiming voting machines were “crooked”—that he and Trump would either be “made fools of” or people “will go to jail.”
“Over the next 10 days, we get to see the machines that are crooked, the ballots that are fraudulent. And if we are wrong we will be made fools of but if we’re right, a lot of them will go to jail,” said Giuliani—to the cheers of some who would soon go to jail and whose actions quickly led to President Trump’s impeachment for inciting an insurrection. “So let’s have trial by combat. I’m willing to stake my reputation. The president is willing to stake his reputation on the fact that we’re going to find criminality there.”
Not long after that, the lawyers said, the pro-Trump riots broke out, leading to the deaths of five people—President Trump’s supporters and Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick among them:
Then, on January 6, 2021, during the “Save America Rally” outside the White House, you falsely accused Dominion of having “crooked” machines that stole the election, stating: “Over the next 10 days, we get to see the machines that are crooked, the ballots that are fraudulent, and if we’re wrong, we will be made fools of. But if we’re right, a lot of them will go to jail. Let’s have trial by combat.” Shortly after your false and wildly reckless words, members of your audience confronted police at the United States Capitol. They marched from the White House to the Capitol, overran security, pushed over barricades, broke windows, and broke into the House and Senate chambers, shouting “STOP THE STEAL!”, a battle cry that you helped popularize. Tear gas was released in the Rotunda. The mob destroyed property, trashed offices, and looted. Five people died, including a police officer who had been beaten with a fire extinguisher.
Dominion’s lawyers said there’s no undoing the damage Giuliani and his allies have done.
“In light of the information that has long been known to you and is additionally set forth in the attached complaint and its exhibits, the only responsible thing for you to do at this point is to publicly and forcefully retract your false claims about Dominion and apologize for inciting the sacking of the United States Capitol by deliberately misleading the American public,” the letter said. “But let us be perfectly clear. There is nothing you can say or do at this point to undo the hundreds of millions of dollars in damage that you and your allies have caused Dominion.”
“The company must therefore expressly reserve all legal rights against you and remind you of your ongoing obligation to preserve all materials that relate in any way to these matters,” the attorneys added.
You can read the letter below:
[Image via JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images]