In a column for MSNBC, Loyola Law School, professor Jessica Levinson surveyed the aftermath of a ruling in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation proceedings made by Federal Judge Carl Nichols and claimed things don’t look good at all for attorneys Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, as well as MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.
In fact, Levinson stated, she sees no way the three supporters of Donald Trump won’t face serious consequences after reading the blistering 44-page decision written by Nichols that she described as being filled with “a healthy dose of judicial derision.”
As Levinson notes, Judge Nichols is a Trump appointee and, based his ruling, the three being sued should be very concerned about what comes next.
Judge Carl Nichols who presided over the case is no liberal darling — he was appointed by none other than Trump himself. And the disdain that the federal judge showed for the statements made, and defenses waged by Powell, Giuliani and Lindell was palpable,” she wrote before adding, “Nichols quickly rejected Powell’s first defense: that a reasonable person could not believe many of her comments about the 2020 election were statements of fact. It is ‘simply not the law that provably false statements cannot be actionable if made in the context of an election,’ Nichols wrote. Put another way, if you lie about a person or other legal entity, you can be sued for defamation, even if the lie is made about an election.”
Writing, “Nichols then proceeded to ruthlessly reject Powell and Lindell’s argument that Dominion’s allegation failed to show that the defendants knew — or recklessly disregarded — that the purportedly defamatory statements were false,” Levinson added, “Nichols also rejected Giuliani’s argument, which said the case should dismissed because Dominion didn’t ask for the right type of damages to recover in the suit.”
After ticking off the various comments made by the judge, the law professor praised the work Nichol’s put into his decision by writing, “There is something truly cathartic about reading a jurist, whether appointed by a Republican or a Democrat, reject Powell, Lindell and Giuliani’s arguments like a raptor dismantling its prey,” before noting the court is operating exactly as it should.
“That the opinion, concerning whether some of Trump’s biggest public supporters can be sued for defamation, was written by a Trump appointee is hugely important. It shows us that many of the federal judges elevated in the last four years are not in fact just political actors in robes. Instead, they are jurists whose job it is to apply the facts of each case to the law and make a determination, regardless of whether or not it is bad for the person who appointed them to their venerated position,” she wrote before predicting, “Dominion’s defamation suits may be the best legal avenue to hold Powell, Lindell and Giuliani accountable for what appears to be a vast web of lies about the 2020 presidential election. Dominion’s case is already successful in that they’ve made it to a trial on the merits. Should they win outright, the case could serve as a massive warning against the next group of liars who seek to undermine our elections.”