Dominion says ex-Michigan state senator’s election fraud claims ‘successfully duped thousands of people’

“You have now taken your disinformation campaign on the road, touring Michigan,” said a letter despatched to Colbeck by legal professionals for the election machine firm, the Detroit News reported. The letter demanded Colbeck retract statements “falsely blaming Dominion for stealing the election from former President Trump.”

Colbeck didn’t instantly return a request for remark late Sunday.

Shortly after the election, through which President Biden received Michigan by greater than 154,000 votes, Colbeck filed an affidavit difficult the ends in Wayne County. A choose dismissed his problem on Nov. 13, saying the Republican had “no evidence” to help his claims that Democrats used the pandemic to obscure election fraud.

“His predilection to believe fraud was occurring undermines his credibility as a witness,” Wayne County Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny said in a ruling.

On Nov. 14, Colbeck attended a “Stop the Steal” rally exterior the Michigan Capitol, the place he was photographed giving a speech as a person carrying a tactical vest and a Three Percenter patch stood behind him. (The Three Percenters is an extremist anti-government motion that gained notoriety after some of its members allegedly stormed the U.S. Capitol constructing in January. The Jan. 6 riot resulted within the deaths of one police officer and 4 others.)

Colbeck was featured in a 93-minute video that circulated on-line in December through which he repeated the false declare that the machines that counted paper ballots have been related to the Internet and inaccurately advised the tabulators might have been hacked.

As rioters compelled their means the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, Colbeck led a prayer exterior the Michigan Capitol at a simultaneous rally to oppose the certification of the presidential election outcomes.

“We know that they’re not going to get away with this again,” he stated to a crowd of Trump supporters, the Detroit News reported. “We know how the story ends, God. Today is going to be one of the most consequential days in our nation’s history.”

Colbeck additionally falsely instructed protesters that Biden had not received the election, and claimed that information studies conveying the election outcomes have been “propaganda.” That similar day, he posted a PowerPoint presentation crammed with debunked election fraud claims on his web site.

In a letter despatched April 2, legal professionals for Dominion Voting Systems allege that Colbeck has continued making inaccurate claims concerning the firm’s function within the election by selling the facility level and urging officers to decertify Michigan’s election outcomes, even after Biden’s victory was licensed by Congress. The letter additionally accuses him of utilizing these false statements to boost cash for his personal enterprise, Perspective Shifts LLC, which advertises consulting providers and promotes two books he wrote.

“You are knowingly sowing discord in our democracy, all the while soliciting exorbitant amounts of money — totaling over $1 million so far — from your audiences paid directly to your personal business,” the letter stated.

According to the legal professionals, the debunked declare that Dominion’s voting machines led to inaccurate vote tallies has brought about damages to the corporate that might end in a defamation lawsuit.

“Because your demonstrably false claims have caused and continue to cause enormous irreparable harm to Dominion, its employees, and American democracy, we write to demand that you retract your false claims and set the record straight,” the letter stated.

This isn’t the primary time that Colbeck has confronted backlash over a PowerPoint.

In 2018, whereas operating within the GOP main for governor, Colbeck used PowerPoint slides to recommend that one of his Democratic opponents had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a gaggle that some politicians have lobbied to designate as a terrorist group. The presentation additionally implied that Colbeck’s political rival was engaged in a plot to wage a “civilization jihad,” BuzzFeed News reported on the time.

But the opponent, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, had no ties to the group and Colbeck didn’t again up his declare with proof, prompting allegations of Islamophobia throughout the race, the Detroit News reported. Colbeck got here in third place throughout the 2018 Republican main for governor with 13 p.c of the vote.

Lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems referenced the 2018 controversy of their letter. They additionally argued that Colbeck had “successfully duped thousands of people across Michigan” into believing Dominion’s machines contributed to nonexistent discrepancies within the 2020 election.

The letter additionally accused Colbeck of utilizing baseless election fraud claims to gasoline his political aspirations.

“We do not yet fully understand why someone of your intelligence, academic pedigree, and experience would deliberately mislead the world about the integrity of an American election,” the letter stated. “We strongly suspect that you maintain political aspirations and will run for governor again in Michigan in 2022, and we know the lengths you are willing to go to try and get what you want, including by falsely accusing a political opponent of ties to terrorism simply because he is a Muslim American.”