Trump's biggest liars will have to convince a jury that they were just kidding

A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that a major defamation case against key boosters of former President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud can continue forward. This is a win not just for the plaintiff, Dominion, a corporation that sells voting machines and software, but also for the American public. It’s looking increasingly like defamation suits could be our best bet for holding election conspiracy theorists accountable and for deterring future false claims of election fraud.

The defendants in the case are Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, attorneys who promoted falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election, and Mike Lindell, founder of MyPillow and a frequent peddler of election conspiracies. All three are now stuck defending themselves against Dominion’s defamation suit thanks to the judge’s decision not to toss the case as they requested.

The suit, very generally, involves claims that Powell, Giuliani and Lindell made about Dominion rigging the 2020 election. To succeed in its defamation claim, Dominion must show that Powell, Giuliani and/or Lindell expressed or implied a false fact (as opposed to opinion) about Dominion and that they knew the statements were false or that they recklessly disregarded the fact that the statements were false.