Trump has called Dominion Voting Systems “a disaster” and his supporters have pushed the conspiracy theory that the company has cut votes for Trump on its voting equipment and that has helped Dominion’s director of product strategy and security, Eric Coomer, undermine the election.
The lawsuit cites as defendants the Trump campaign, Rudy Giuliani, Trump adviser Sidney Powell, conservative media outlets One America News Network and Newsmax Media, right-wing website Gateway Pundit and Colorado businessman and activist Joseph Oltmann, among others. CNN has contacted those named in the lawsuit.
In recent days – as the threat of legal action heightened – several conservative media outlets have begun to reverse some of the more outrageous claims.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Colorado County Court, Coomer’s attorneys say the charges are “false and baseless” and have caused “tremendous damage to Dr. Coomer’s reputation, professional reputation, security and privacy.”
The lawsuit says the defendants “leaned heavily on false charges” from Oltmann, who claimed in interviews and social media posts that Coomer was a participant in an Antifa conference call that Oltmann said had infiltrated in September.
When asked about Antifa’s alleged appeal, Oltmann told CNN he has “a wealth of evidence” – which he has not immediately provided – and said, “The truth is the great equalizer in all of this.”
Coomer’s lawyers have denied that the Dominion manager was aware of the alleged call, participated in it, or made any such comments.
He is seeking damages, as well as the public retraction of all statements considered defamatory.
In a statement Tuesday, Coomer said the lawsuit is “ an attempt to mitigate as much as possible of the damage done to me, my family, my life, and my livelihood as a result of the myriad false public statements for which I have in one way or another was responsible for ‘manipulating’ the 2020 presidential election. “
Dominion herself is no match for the suit.
However, the Denver-based company said in a statement to CNN that “Sidney Powell and many others – including some news organizations – have trampled countless reputations while spreading their ridiculous conspiracy theories.”
The memo, reviewed by CNN, refers to a letter Dominion sent to Powell last week demanding that she publicly withdraw her allegations and instructing campaign personnel not to alter, destroy, or delete relevant documents.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Kevin Liptak, Pamela Brown and Brian Rokus contributed to this report.