Far-right attorney Sidney Powell’s attempt to thwart Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against her failed in court Wednesday, as a federal judge rejected her counterclaim against the company’s lawsuit, which takes issue with false claims about election fraud Powell spread about Dominion’s voting machines.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols granted Dominion’s motion to dismiss Powell’s counterclaim, which asked the court to award her $10 million in damages and hold a jury trial in addition to declaring Dominion’s defamation claims unsuccessful.
The counterclaim alleged Dominion had committed “abuse of process” by bringing its $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit last year, because it “brought this case to punish and make an example of” Powell as a “public-relations campaign” to cover up the allegations about its voting machines.
Nichols, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, ruled there was no abuse of process because that would require showing “a perversion of the judicial process,” which Powell didn’t prove.
Powell’s counterclaim “fails to link her abuse-of-process claim to any act that Dominion has taken, other than filing and pursuing its lawsuit,” Nichols wrote, siding with Dominion’s argument when it asked the judge to dismiss the counterclaim.
Nichols previously dismissed a similar counterclaim MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell made against Dominion in its defamation lawsuit against him, noting Wednesday that he was dismissing Powell’s request “for substantially similar reasons.”
Powell has not yet responded to a request for comment.