Government

Sidney Powell Asserts The 'I'm Full Of Sh*t' Defense In Dominion Defamation Suit

No? Well, would you accept that lawyers have a privilege to lie in zealous defense of their clients?

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(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Yesterday, Sidney Powell defended herself against Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.3 billion defamation suit by claiming that any rational listener would know that she was full of shit.

“[R]easonable people would not accept such statements as fact but view them only as claims that await testing by the courts through the adversary process,” she insists in her motion to dismiss.

At the same time, Powell asserts that the plaintiffs cannot prove actual malice under the New York Times v. Sullivan standard because she herself believed the nonsense she was spewing about Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez rigging the presidential vote for Joe Biden.

And she still believes it. Just not enough to assert the truth of her claims as a defense.

[The complaint] alleges no facts which, if proven by clear and convincing evidence, would show that Sidney Powell knew her statements were false (assuming that they were indeed false, which Defendants dispute). Nor have Plaintiffs alleged any facts showing that Powell “in fact entertained serious doubts as to the truth of h[er] publication.” In fact, she believed the allegations then and she believes them now.

Yes, Powell is claiming that no one could possibly have believed her public allegations about Dominion were statements of fact, while simultaneously claiming that she herself believed they were statements of fact. And no, this case was not filed by Lin Wood, who originally threatened to slay the Dominion dragon on her behalf. Powell’s regular sidekicks Lawrence Joseph, Howard Kleinhendler, and Jesse Binnall are gracing the docket with their creative stylings.

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How creative?

Well, in addition to the regular arguments about DC federal court being the wrong jurisdiction and venue for statements made in DC, Powell makes some truly bizarre assertions about the practice of law generally. Who knew that “an attorney-advocate for her preferred candidate and in support of her legal and political positions” has a right to defame third parties?

“[T]he statements in question are not actionable because they were made in the context of pending and impending litigation,” she insists, likening Fox and Newsmax media hits in which she baselessly accused Dominion of participating in an illegal conspiracy to Justice Department press releases.

“All the allegedly defamatory statements attributed to Defendants were made as part of the normal process of litigating issues of momentous significance and immense public interest,” she says of her repeated allegations that Dominion machines used algorithms to flip votes from Trump to Biden.

Similarly, she claims a privilege to make “vituperative” claims as part of the political process, blithely ignoring the fact that all the allegedly defamatory statements were made after the election. Also, Dominion was neither a candidate for office, nor a defendant in any of the post-election Kraken suits. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Perhaps most delightful for Kraken superfans (it me!), is Powell’s assertion that her belief in a multinational conspiracy to rig the election was reasonable because she relied on affidavits from expert and eye witnesses. The fact that she and her legal team appear to have played a major role in drafting those affidavits is not mentioned. Nor is the fact that Powell tried valiantly to conceal the identity of multiple witnesses from the court, obscuring the fact that they were rando internet conspiracy theorists with major credibility problems, not the super-secret spy types she claimed they were.

Also the motion features a cameo by former Overstock.com CEO and current conspiracy enthusiast Patrick Byrne in his role as “Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Defending the Republic, Inc.,” Powell’s fundraising vehicle. And Dominion’s lawyer Thomas Clare has filed notices of related case to get the company’s defamation suits against Rudy Giuliani and MyPillow guy Mike Lindell into US District Judge Carl Nichols’ courtroom.

The gang’s all here! Let the shitshow commence.

US Dominion Inc. v. Powell [Docket via Court Listener]

Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

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