Dominion Voting Systems Employee Sues Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, Trump Campaign and Right-Wing Media for Dragging His Name Through the Mud

Eric Coomer It seemed that it was only a matter of time before someone or some entity got sued over the unsubstantiated and baseless conspiracy theory that Dominion Voting Systems conspired to steal the 2020 election from Donald Trump . Not long after Smartmatic and Dominion themselves threatened legal action , a Dominion employee has filed a defamation and civil conspiracy lawsuit against various right-wing networks and websites, media figures, and the Trump campaign. Dr. Eric Coomer filed the lawsuit in the Denver County district court, claiming that defendants conspired to defamed him and intentionally inflict “severe” emotional distress, leading him to be falsely branded as a “traitor” and subjected to “multiple credible death threats.” Coomer sued the Trump campaign, “Kraken” attorney Sidney Powell and her firm, Rudy Giuliani , One America News Network and its correspondent Chanel Rion , Newsmax, Jim Hoft and The Gateway Pundit, Colorado businessman Joseph Oltmann , Michelle Malkin , and Eric Metaxas . You may have seen an image online claiming that Coomer, the Director of Product Strategy and Security for Dominion, conspired with “Antifa activists” to ensure that Joe Biden would be the next president of the United States. CBS Denver/screengrab According to the lawsuit, it stems from a conspiracy “fabricated” by Oltmann, who is described as a “political activist and supporter of President Trump with ambitions of creating a political movement.” The lawsuit said Oltmann waited until after the election was called for Biden to claim that he had special knowledge of an Antifa-Coomer plot to steal the election. “Oltmann serves as a co-host of the Conservative Daily Podcast under the name Joe Otto with videos also posted on Conservative Daily’s YouTube channel,” the lawsuit said. “After the results of the election were called for President-Elect Joe Biden, Oltmann co-hosted a Conservative Daily Podcast. On that podcast, he alleged to have learned almost two months earlier of a conspiracy to elect the president of the United States. Oltmann claimed he gained this information after infiltrating Antifa.” “Despite his interest in the election and prolific podcasting schedule, Oltmann apparently took no action at that time to report this alleged threat to democracy,” the lawsuit went on. According to the complaint, Oltmann said the following on his podcast on Nov. 9: Let’s not sugar coat this, we’re going to expose someone inside of Dominion Voting Systems specifically related to Antifa and related to someone that is so far left and is controlling the elections, and his fingerprints are in every state. So I want you guys to understand that what we’re about to show you, you have to share . . . The conversation will be about a man named Eric Coomer. C-O-O-M-E-R. After the election, Oltmann claimed that he had “infiltrated an Antifa conference call” two months earlier and recalled someone asking “Eric […] the Dominion guy”: “What are we gonna do if f-ing Trump wins?” The purported response to that was the origin of the quote attributed to Coomer: “Don’t worry about the election, Trump is not gonna win. I made f-ing sure of that. Hahahaha.” Coomer’s lawyers said that Oltmann has “[a]t no point […] contacted Dr.Coomer to confirm his involvement in this purported call,” but instead made “baseless and unequivocally false” claims that Coomer conspired to rig the election: Finding no credible evidence of Dr. Coomer’s involvement in the purported “Antifa Conference Call,” Oltmann, instead, used posts on Dr. Coomer’s Facebook profile that were critical of President Trump to allege he was the anonymous “Eric.” Having no credible evidence of voter fraud, Oltmann used Dr. Coomer’s position and employment with Dominion to allege Dr. Coomer was a key figure in a high-level conspiracy to rig the election against President Trump. These statements are baseless and unequivocally false. Dr. Coomer has no knowledge of this alleged “Antifa Conference Call;” Dr. Coomer did not participate in such an alleged call; Dr. Coomer did not make the comments Oltmann alleged were made; and Dr. Coomer did not take steps to subvert the results of the presidential election. The lawsuit acknowledged that Coomer was critical of Trump on Facebook and had shared satire on the private Facebook account, but said Coomer “did not participate in political groups and did not donate to campaigns.” “Dr. Coomer worked with elections officials—Republican, Democratic, and independent—across the country to make sure the process was safe,” the suit said. “The ability to have a political opinion in this country is a protected right. It remains a protected right, even if critical of a sitting president. That criticism does not denote conspiracy or fraud.” Days later, President Donald Trump himself amplified claims about Dominion, citing Chanel Rion and OAN. “REPORT: DOMINION DELETED 2.7 MILLION TRUMP VOTES NATIONWIDE. DATA ANALYSIS FINDS 221,000 PENNSYLVANIA VOTES SWITCHED FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP TO BIDEN. 941,000 TRUMP VOTES DELETED. STATES USING DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS SWITCHED 435,000 VOTES FROM TRUMP TO BIDEN.” @ChanelRion @OANN — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2020 From here, the Coomer lawsuit attempted to trace the spread of these various claims across right-wing media, documenting the threats that ensued. The lawsuit repeatedly said that the defendants did not attempt to verify that what Oltmann was saying was true before taking his “Antifa Conference Call” claims and running with them. Nov. 13: Gateway Pundit publishes on Coomer, and Michelle Malkin interviews Oltmann. On November 13, 2020, Gateway Pundit published an article by James “Jim” Hoft to its website with the headline: “Dominion Voting Systems Officer of Strategy and SECURITY Eric Coomer Admitted in 2016 Vendors and Election Officials Have Access to Manipulate the Vote.” In this article, Hoft and Gateway Pundit developed Oltmann’s story by adding photo and video, additional context, and links to ostensibly related content. They rely on Oltmann as a source of information to report on Dr. Coomer and Dominion[…] […] Also on November 13, 2020, Michelle Malkin hosted an interview with Oltmann, who was identified as a representative of FEC United, on her personal YouTube channel, #MalkinLive, which has approximately 100,000 subscribers. During the MalkinLive interview, Oltmann again falsely alleged that Dr. Coomer was an anonymous Antifa activist on a purported call Oltmann claimed to have infiltrated well before the election. Yet only after the election did Oltmann allegedly determine from this call that Dr. Coomer subverted the presidential election to elect Joe Biden. Malkin published these false statements despite their inherent improbability, the unreliability of her source, and the lack of credible evidence in support of these allegations. Malkin had no credible evidence that an “Antifa conference call” actually happened; that Dr. Coomer was present on the call; that the comments attributed to Dr. Coomer were actually spoken; and that the alleged election fraud actually occurred. Malkin took no actions or efforts to corroborate or verify the baseless allegations before publishing them and disregarded reliable sources establishing the contrary. Nov. 14: Gateway Pundit publishes on the Antifa theory. On November 14, 2020, Gateway Pundit began publishing successive articles written by Hoft based and built upon Oltmann’s false allegations. Gateway Pundit and Hoft asserted, “Oltmann said that as the conversation continued, someone asked, ‘What are we gonna do if F*cking Trump wins?’ Oltmann paraphrased how Eric (the Dominion guy) responded, ‘Don’t worry about the election, Trump’s not gonna win. I made f*cking sure of that!’”70 Gateway Pundit repeatedly identified Oltmann, a “Denver business owner” and “founder of FEC (Faith Education Commerce) United,” as the source of its articles about Dr. Coomer and Dominion. Nov. 17: OAN’s Chanel Rion reports. On November 17, 2020, OANN Chief White House Correspondent Chanel Rion published false statements regarding Dr. Coomer, tweeting “Dominion Director of Strategy and Security, #EricC
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