Giuliani claims litigation privilege shields him from Dominion VP’s 2020 defamation claims
COURTHOUSE NEWs SERVICE reports:
“ DENVER (CN) — Former Donald Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani urged the Colorado Court of Appeals on Thursday to dismiss defamation claims filed by a former Dominion Voting Systems employee who unwittingly became the villain in a false narrative of a 2020 election fraud claim that went national after the former New York City mayor called him out in a press conference.
“Remember this was two weeks after the election,” recalled Giuliani’s attorney, Geoffrey Blue. "They were scrambling, looking for people with evidence of election fraud."
After the 2020 election, host Joseph Oltmann of the Conservative Daily Podcast claimed he heard a man identified as “Eric from Dominion” say on a call that he was going to make sure Trump lost. Based on internet research, Oltmann concluded the caller was Eric Coomer, a director of product strategy and security at Dominion Voting Systems in Denver.
The spark caught and spread like wildfire after the election, as it was picked up by the One America News Network, retweeted by the Trump campaign, and extolled in a press conference on Nov. 19, 2020 by attorneys Sidney Powell and Giuliani.
Coomer sued Giuliani in December 2020, along with the Trump campaign and a host of podcasters, bloggers and reporters who not only spread false claims of election fraud, but singled him out, by wrongly claiming he personally rigged the election.
Following a fall 2021 bench trial, a Denver judge in May 2022 denied the defendants’ motions to dismiss under the state’s anti-SLAPP law, passed in 2019 to protect free speech and civic engagement from frivolous lawsuits. The Trump campaign and others appealed.
When Giuliani filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 4 in Manhattan, the Colorado Court of Appeals granted his request for a stay, separating him from the other defendants, who argued their case in January, and were denied dismissal of defamation claims in April.
Following the dismissal of his bankruptcy in August, Giuliani requested oral argument before the Colorado appellate court, which granted the request — giving Giuliani a slight advantage over the case’s other defendants who all shared a 45-minute timeslot earlier this year.
Blue told the court he had watched the previous argument and would focus on asking the court to return to their analysis of litigation privilege, which Blue argued was so narrow it would bar the state attorney general from holding a press conference about a case he wasn’t personally arguing.
Blue additionally explained how Giuliani’s comments about Coomer played into a larger litigation strategy. “Election law has a short time frame. Doing a press conference like this asks for people to come forward, people who work at Dominion and polling places,” Blue argued.
Court of Appeals Judge Karl Schock questioned where Giuliani had first raised this argument, and Blue admitted it was not in his original opening brief, filed two years ago, because he thought it was adequately covered in other briefs filed by co-defendants and so was not necessary to repeat at the time.
“Fairness aside, there is an on-point case,” Schock said, referring to the opinion he published earlier this year with the other panel members, appellate Judges Anthony Navarro and Eric Kuhn, all of whom were appointed to the court by Democratic governors.
On behalf of Coomer, attorney Charles Cain of Salida, Colorado urged the court to rely on its existing opinion.
“Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani calling out Coomer at press conferences ramped up the death threats he received,” Cain argued. “He can no longer work in elections because of this.”
Cain countered that Blue sought to use litigation privilege to cement over-broad protections and that if Giuliani’s press conference speech was protected then anything could be protected as such.
“I could do a press conference on anything,” Cain retorted. “We’re always looking for cases.”
Kuhn asked whether it was facially implausible for an attorney to find witnesses for an elections case by holding a press conference.
“It’s not inherently improbable, that’s just not what happened here,” Cain said. “Remember Giuliani never filed a case against Coomer.”
Coomer filed an additional lawsuit against Denver-based conservative radio host Randy Corporon and broadcaster Salem Media in 2021, which is currently under review before three Colorado Court of Appeals justices. A third suit against My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell is scheduled for a federal trial in June 2025.”
“ DENVER (CN) — Former Donald Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani urged the Colorado Court of Appeals on Thursday to dismiss defamation claims filed by a former Dominion Voting Systems employee who unwittingly became the villain in a false narrative of a 2020 election fraud claim that went national after the former New York City mayor called him out in a press conference.
“Remember this was two weeks after the election,” recalled Giuliani’s attorney, Geoffrey Blue. "They were scrambling, looking for people with evidence of election fraud."
After the 2020 election, host Joseph Oltmann of the Conservative Daily Podcast claimed he heard a man identified as “Eric from Dominion” say on a call that he was going to make sure Trump lost. Based on internet research, Oltmann concluded the caller was Eric Coomer, a director of product strategy and security at Dominion Voting Systems in Denver.
The spark caught and spread like wildfire after the election, as it was picked up by the One America News Network, retweeted by the Trump campaign, and extolled in a press conference on Nov. 19, 2020 by attorneys Sidney Powell and Giuliani.
Coomer sued Giuliani in December 2020, along with the Trump campaign and a host of podcasters, bloggers and reporters who not only spread false claims of election fraud, but singled him out, by wrongly claiming he personally rigged the election.
Following a fall 2021 bench trial, a Denver judge in May 2022 denied the defendants’ motions to dismiss under the state’s anti-SLAPP law, passed in 2019 to protect free speech and civic engagement from frivolous lawsuits. The Trump campaign and others appealed.
When Giuliani filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 4 in Manhattan, the Colorado Court of Appeals granted his request for a stay, separating him from the other defendants, who argued their case in January, and were denied dismissal of defamation claims in April.
Following the dismissal of his bankruptcy in August, Giuliani requested oral argument before the Colorado appellate court, which granted the request — giving Giuliani a slight advantage over the case’s other defendants who all shared a 45-minute timeslot earlier this year.
Blue told the court he had watched the previous argument and would focus on asking the court to return to their analysis of litigation privilege, which Blue argued was so narrow it would bar the state attorney general from holding a press conference about a case he wasn’t personally arguing.
Blue additionally explained how Giuliani’s comments about Coomer played into a larger litigation strategy. “Election law has a short time frame. Doing a press conference like this asks for people to come forward, people who work at Dominion and polling places,” Blue argued.
Court of Appeals Judge Karl Schock questioned where Giuliani had first raised this argument, and Blue admitted it was not in his original opening brief, filed two years ago, because he thought it was adequately covered in other briefs filed by co-defendants and so was not necessary to repeat at the time.
“Fairness aside, there is an on-point case,” Schock said, referring to the opinion he published earlier this year with the other panel members, appellate Judges Anthony Navarro and Eric Kuhn, all of whom were appointed to the court by Democratic governors.
On behalf of Coomer, attorney Charles Cain of Salida, Colorado urged the court to rely on its existing opinion.
“Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani calling out Coomer at press conferences ramped up the death threats he received,” Cain argued. “He can no longer work in elections because of this.”
Cain countered that Blue sought to use litigation privilege to cement over-broad protections and that if Giuliani’s press conference speech was protected then anything could be protected as such.
“I could do a press conference on anything,” Cain retorted. “We’re always looking for cases.”
Kuhn asked whether it was facially implausible for an attorney to find witnesses for an elections case by holding a press conference.
“It’s not inherently improbable, that’s just not what happened here,” Cain said. “Remember Giuliani never filed a case against Coomer.”
Coomer filed an additional lawsuit against Denver-based conservative radio host Randy Corporon and broadcaster Salem Media in 2021, which is currently under review before three Colorado Court of Appeals justices. A third suit against My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell is scheduled for a federal trial in June 2025.”
61-69, M
