Trump Campaign Knew Lawyers' Dominion Claims Were Baseless, Papers Say

Two weeks aft the 2020 election, a squad of lawyers intimately allied with Donald J. Trump held a wide watched quality league astatine the Republican Party’s office successful Washington. At the event, they laid retired a bizarre conspiracy mentation claiming that a voting instrumentality institution had worked with an predetermination bundle firm, the financier George Soros and Venezuela to bargain the statesmanlike contention from Mr. Trump.

But determination was a occupation for the Trump team, according to tribunal documents released connected Monday evening.

By the clip the quality league occurred connected Nov. 19, Mr. Trump’s run had already prepared an interior memo connected galore of the outlandish claims astir the company, Dominion Voting Systems, and the abstracted bundle company, Smartmatic. The memo had determined that those allegations were untrue.

The tribunal papers, which were initially filed precocious past week arsenic a question successful a defamation suit brought against the run and others by a erstwhile Dominion employee, Eric Coomer, incorporate grounds that officials successful the Trump run were alert aboriginal connected that galore of the claims against the companies were baseless.

The documents besides suggest that the run sat connected its findings astir Dominion adjacent arsenic Sidney Powell and different lawyers attacked the institution successful the blimpish media and yet filed 4 national lawsuits accusing it of a immense conspiracy to rig the predetermination against Mr. Trump.

According to emails contained successful the documents, Zach Parkinson, past the campaign’s lawman manager of communications, reached retired to subordinates connected Nov. 13 asking them to “substantiate oregon debunk” respective matters concerning Dominion. The adjacent day, the emails show, Mr. Parkinson received a transcript of a memo cobbled unneurotic by his unit from what mostly look to beryllium quality articles and nationalist fact-checking services.

Even though the memo was hastily assembled, it rebutted a bid of allegations that Ms. Powell and others were making successful public. It found:

• That Dominion did not usage voting exertion from the bundle company, Smartmatic, successful the 2020 election.

• That Dominion had nary nonstop ties to Venezuela oregon to Mr. Soros.

• And that determination was nary grounds that Dominion’s enactment had connections to left-wing “antifa” activists, arsenic Ms. Powell and others had claimed.

As Mr. Coomer’s lawyers wrote successful their question successful the defamation suit, “The memo produced by the Trump run shows that, astatine slightest internally, the Trump run recovered determination was nary grounds to enactment the conspiracy theories regarding Dominion” and Mr. Coomer.

It is unclear if Mr. Trump knew astir oregon saw the memo; still, the documents suggest that his campaign’s communications unit remained soundless astir what it knew of the claims against Dominion astatine a infinitesimal erstwhile the allegations were circulating freely.

“The Trump run continued to let its agents,” the question says, “to beforehand debunked conspiracy theories and defame” Mr. Coomer, “apparently without providing them with their ain probe debunking those theories.”

Mr. Coomer, Dominion’s onetime manager of merchandise strategy and security, sued Ms. Powell, Mr. Giuliani, the Trump run and others past twelvemonth successful authorities territory tribunal successful Denver. He has said that aft the election, helium was wrongly accused by a right-wing podcast host of hacking his company’s systems to guarantee Mr. Trump’s decision and of past telling left-wing activists that helium had done so.

Soon aft the host, Joe Oltmann, made these accusations, they were seized upon and amplified by Ms. Powell and Mr. Giuliani, who were portion of a self-described “elite onslaught force” of lawyers starring the complaint successful challenging Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory.

On Nov. 19, for example, Ms. Powell and Mr. Giuliani appeared unneurotic astatine the quality conference astatine the Republican National Committee’s office and placed Mr. Coomer astatine the halfway of a crippled to hijack the predetermination by hacking Dominion’s voting machines. By Ms. Powell’s relationship that day, the conspiracy included Smartmatic, Venezuelan officials, radical connected to Mr. Soros and a “massive power of communist money.”

Ms. Powell and Mr. Giuliani did not respond to messages seeking remark connected the documents. Representatives for Mr. Trump besides did not respond to emails seeking comment.

Mr. Trump continues to falsely reason that the predetermination was stolen from him, and successful caller months Ms. Powell and Mr. Giuliani person stuck by their claims that the predetermination was rife with fraud. A lawyer for Mr. Giuliani said successful a tribunal filing past month that astatine slightest immoderate of his claims of predetermination fraud were “substantially true.”

And arsenic precocious arsenic 3 weeks ago, Ms. Powell told a newsman for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the 2020 predetermination was “essentially a bloodless coup wherever they took implicit the presidency of the United States without a azygous changeable being fired.”

It remains unclear however wide the memo was circulated among Trump run unit members. According to the tribunal documents, Mr. Giuliani said successful a deposition that helium had not seen the memo earlier helium gave his presumption successful Washington, and helium questioned the motives of those who had prepared it.

Trump’s Bid to Subvert the Election

“They wanted Trump to suffer due to the fact that they could rise much money,” Mr. Giuliani was quoted arsenic saying successful the deposition.

But astatine the clip that the interior study was prepared, Mr. Giuliani and Ms. Powell were some “active supervisors,” arsenic helium enactment it successful his deposition, successful the Trump campaign’s broader program to situation the predetermination results — an effort that yet included much than 60 failed lawsuits filed crossed the country. While Ms. Powell soon went her ain mode successful claiming that Dominion had conspired to bargain the election, Mr. Giuliani continued moving intimately with Mr. Trump and his campaign, yet changing strategies and seeking to transportation authorities legislatures to overturn the fashionable vote.

The question notes that “the lines were blurred” arsenic to whom Ms. Powell was moving for astatine the time: herself, her nonprofit enactment oregon the Trump campaign. Almost instantly aft she promoted the conspiracy mentation astir Dominion astatine the quality league successful November, Mr. Trump sought to region himself from her. But by December, arsenic Mr. Trump’s ineligible options narrowed, the erstwhile president considered bringing her backmost into the fold and discussed whether to name her arsenic a peculiar counsel overseeing an probe of elector fraud.

The merchandise of the documents was lone the latest ineligible occupation for Mr. Giuliani and Ms. Powell, some of whom person been sued straight by Dominion for defamation. Dominion has besides brought a defamation suit against Mike Lindell, the main enforcement of MyPillow, for amplifying mendacious predetermination claims. Last month, a national justice successful Washington ruled that the cases could proceed moving toward trial.

About the aforesaid time, a national justice successful Detroit ordered penalties to beryllium levied against Ms. Powell and 8 different pro-Trump lawyers — Mr. Giuliani was not among them — who filed a suit that sought to overturn the predetermination results successful Michigan utilizing the mendacious claims astir Dominion.

“This lawsuit was ne'er astir fraud,” the judge, Linda V. Parker, wrote successful her decision. “It was astir undermining the people’s religion successful our ideology and debasing the judicial process to bash so.”

In June, a New York tribunal suspended Mr. Giuliani’s instrumentality license, ruling that helium had made “demonstrably mendacious and misleading statements” portion warring the results of past year’s predetermination for Mr. Trump.

Even recently, the caller tribunal documents say, erstwhile Trump run officials person continued to cling to the baseless conception that the predetermination was marred by fraud.

When lawyers for Mr. Coomer asked Sean Dollman, a typical of the Trump campaign, successful a deposition if the run inactive believed that the predetermination was fraudulent, helium answered, “Yes, sir.”

The lawyers past asked, “What is that sentiment based on?”

According to the tribunal documents, Mr. Dollman gave a little than definite answer.

“We person nary underlying definite facts that it wasn’t,” helium said.

Susan Dominus, Shay Castle and Mindy Sink contributed reporting.