A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday agreed to dismiss a lawsuit that pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell filed against Dominion Voting Systems as the voting machine company pursues a $1.3 billion defamation claim against her.
In a three-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols granted Dominion’s request to toss the case after finding Powell failed to show that Dominion’s defamation suit against her constituted an abuse of justice.
“Powell’s complaint fails to link her abuse-of-process claim to any act that Dominion has taken other than filing and pursuing its lawsuit,” wrote Nichols, who was appointed to the federal district court in D.C. by former President Trump. “She has thus failed to state a claim for abuse of process.”
Attorneys for Dominion and Powell did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The ruling Wednesday comes after Nichols tossed a similar countersuit brought by MyPillow and its CEO, Mike Lindell, against Dominion and voting machine supplier Smartmatic. Last year, Nichols also rejected requests by Powell, Lindell and Rudolph Giuliani to dismiss the defamation suits against them.
Dominion’s lawsuit stems from allegedly defamatory statements the Trump-allied defendants made about the voting machine company as they helped lead the former president’s failed effort to thwart U.S. democracy by giving Trump a second White House term despite losing the 2020 election.
Updated at 12:42 p.m.