Thread by @ZoeTillman

Judge Carl Nichols will be hearing arguments this afternoon in Dominion's defamation suits against Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and Mike Lindell/MyPillow. Per attorney introductions on the line, Powell and Lindell are there in person with their lawyers, Giuliani is not

MyPillow's lawyer (the company has different counsel than Lindell individually) notes that Alan Dershowitz has dialed in remotely b/c he can't travel after a surgery and is on their legal team. Also in court today along with this lawyers is Dominion co-founder John Poulos

Powell's lawyer Howard Kleinhendler is up first. Nichols begins by trying to parse their arg that there couldn't be malice if Powell made claims in the context of her election lawsuits. But Nichols notes Dominion points to certain statements that were outside of what was in court

Nichols asks if Kleinhendler/Powell's position is that if someone says something "patently false" in litigation and repeats it to the press, it's not actionable in a defamation case. Kleinhendler replies that even if actionable, the plaintiff still has to prove "malicious intent"

Kleinhendler says that when Powell said Dominion was created to manipulate votes in Venezuela, it was an "opinion" because she based it on an affidavit. Nichols asks, what if that doc is false. Kleinhendler says it's still protected opinion, only matters if she had a bad motive

Andrew Parker for MyPillow is up next, and he starts by trying to distance their case from Powell's. Nichols says there are different allegations, but it's the same gist in that they're arguing Dominion failed to show they acted with actual malice/reckless disregard

Parker argues Lindell's case is bolstered by the fact that there are still government investigations going on right now about the election (he doens't elaborate but perhaps a reference to the Arizona audit)

Parker stresses again that pre-2020 concerns people had expressed about the security vulnerability of Dominion/other voting systems helps their case. Nichols pushes back, saying that claiming Dominion intentionally aided election fraud is "wildly" different

Parker says allowing Dominion's case to go forward will "chill"/"muzzle" people from expressing opinions. Judges notes unlike Powell, Lindell isn't arguing his statements at issue were nonactionable opinion. Parker says that's right, but adds Lindell still believes they're true

Giuliani's lawyer Joseph Sibley is now arguing. Recall they aren't getting into the same speech-based arguments as Powell/Lindell, but are focused on whether Dominion alleged a viable damages theory

https://twitter.com/ZoeTillman/status/1379814365269004293

Dominion's lawyer Tom Clare lays out a road map for their arguments (they'll respond in one swoop to all three motions to dismiss) — says suit is about specific factual allegations, made outside of court, by Giuliani/Powell/Lindell that Dominion was involved in election fraud

Since I see some people asking: Judge Carl Nichols was a Trump nominee to the DC district court. I would stress that cases are randomly assigned as they come in, and Nichols got all three Dominion ones b/c Giuliani/Lindell were designated as related to Powell's, which came first

Clare argues Dominion clears the threshold for alleging the statements made by Powell/Giuliani/Lindell — essentially, that the company was part of massive election fraud involving officials across the country — were "inherently improbable"

Clare says that Dominion presents facts to back up the "inherent probability" argument, but says at this stage for the case to go forward the judge just has to find that a reasonable juror could look at it and draw an inference about the defs' state of mind

Clare argues they've sufficiently pleaded at this stage that Powell and Lindell acted from a preconceived narrative position — that they decided the election was stolen, and then went out to try to find/manipulate evidence to boost it and disregarded evidence to contrary

Clare also urges the judge to reject the theory that Dominion is a "government" actor in this situation, that at most they're a contractor for the actual election officials. Now the judge is taking a short recess to give the court reporter a break, back at 4:10

Dominion hearing is back on. Dominion lawyer Stephen Shackelford is arguing, says that the defs didn't analyze the specific language of the allegedly defamatory statements. They were making actionable assertions of "cold hard fact," he says, while quickly noting they were false

Back to the Dominion hearing for a few more minutes: on rebuttal, Powell's lawyer Howard Kleinhendler says it all comes back to actual malice, not about whether Powell's statements were true or not (but he doesn't concede her election fraud claims were, in fact, false)

Kleinhendler addresses Dominion's claim Powell relied on a doctored document, saying it is a "baldfaced assertion" unsupported by facts

Okay I have to jump off of the Dominion hearing for a bit, but @jacq_thomsen is, as always, doing an excellent job live tweeting this if you want to keep following along

Today's dispatch from (virtual) court: Sidney Powell And Mike Lindell Are Using Dominion’s Defamation Suit To Boost The Election Fraud Claims That Got Them Sued
buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…

In related news, here's @mimms on the order earlier today suspending Rudy Giuliani from practicing law in New York buzzfeednews.com/article/sarahm…