A voting machine corporation has filed a US$1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani, the lawyer of former President Donald Trump, accusing him of defamation in what it terms his "big lie" campaign about widespread presidential election fraud, court records reveal.
An earlier lawsuit against Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell was brought by the Denver-based firm, Dominion Voting Systems, which the company also accused of promoting false conspiracy theories about the election that Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
Giuliani and his lawyer, Robert Costello, did not immediately respond on Monday, local time, to requests for comment.
Giuliani has stood by his election statements, claiming he is being blamed for "exercising my right to free speech and defending my client" during a radio show last week.
Before his supporters invaded the Capitol on January 6, Trump and his allies spent two months denying his election loss, and alleging without proof that it was the result of massive voter fraud.
In the lawsuit, Dominion is seeking $1.3 billion in damages from the former New York City mayor, alleging that "he and his supporters created and spread the 'Big Lie,' which inevitably went viral and fooled millions of people into thinking that Dominion had stolen their votes and fixed the election."
Dominion said that the case was brought "to set the record straight" and to "stand up for itself, its staff, and the electoral process."
Last week, a group of influential lawyers asked the New York judiciary to suspend Giuliani's legal license because he made false statements in post-election litigation and encouraged Trump supporters to participate in "combat trials" shortly before the US Capitol was stormed on January 6.
In its lawsuit, Dominion claims that it has spent $565,000 on private security to protect its workers who are facing abuse and threats of death.
"Giuliani's statements," the lawsuit said, "were calculated to provoke outrage and cause enormous harm to Dominion, and indeed did."
Dominion, founded in 2002, is a major US manufacturer of voting machines, and during the 2020 elections, various Dominion machines were used in more than two dozen states.
