Trump campaign can’t nix defamation suit from Dominion director

(CN) — Eric Coomer, who did not rig the 2020 election, nevertheless found himself at the center of a conspiracy theory spread from a Colorado podcaster to the campaign to reelect former-President Donald Trump, picking up countless unsuspecting believers along the way. On Friday, a Denver judge denied a batch of motions to dismiss Coomer’s defamation lawsuit against the Trump campaign and a dozen others who disseminated a web of election disinformation.

“There is no constitutional value in false statements of fact or the deliberate spread of dangerous and inflammatory political disinformation designed to sow distrust in democratic institutions,” wrote 2nd Judicial District Judge Marie Avery Moses in a 136-page opinion.

Moses was appointed by Democratic Governor Jared Polis last May.

Following the 2020 election, host of the Conservative Daily podcast, Joseph Oltmann, claimed he heard a man identified as “Eric from Dominion” say on a call that he was going to make sure Trump lost. Based on Internet research, Oltmann said he concluded the caller was Eric Coomer, a director of product strategy and security at Dominion Voting Systems in Denver.

The spark caught and spread like wildfire after the election, as it was picked up by the OAN network, and repeated by the Trump campaign, and attorneys Rudi Giuliani and Sidney Powell.

As the lie spread, Oltmann's statements against Coomer became increasingly violent, encouraging listeners to post "where is Eric Coomer" on social media, to harass him in the mountain town where he went into hiding, and to prepare for a civil war.

In his 2020 lawsuit, Coomer identified more than a dozen individuals and companies that collectively made him the villain in the narrative of unbased claims of election fraud.

Coomer has since filed two additional lawsuits against Denver-based conservative radio host Randy Corporon and infamous My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell.

In asking for the case to be dismissed under the state’s anti-SLAPP law, several defendants agued that they reported the information they had from Oltmann at the time and still believed. The court heard two days of testimony last October, reviewed defendants’ evidentiary objections and awarded legal fees to Coomer after sanctioning Oltmann for submitting frivolous objections.

Throughout the proceeding, Otlmann ignored the court’s restraining order and continued spreading the false Coomer conspiracy theory across his platform.

While Oltmann stuck to his story, he was unable — or unwilling — to name witnesses that corroborated what he heard on the mysterious Antifa call. Moses therefore “found that his testimony was ‘evasive and not credible,’ and concluded that, for purposes of the Colorado Reporter’s Privilege, Oltmann’s ‘statements regarding that conference call are probably false.’”

Moses further tallied up the political and financial motives among the parties incentivizing the perpetuation of the false narrative, from Oltmann’s growing podcast audience to the Trump Campaign’s determination to overturn Biden’s victory.

Although members of the Trump campaign investigated Oltmann’s claims against Coomer and found they were not credible, attorney Rudy Giuliani told the court he didn’t read the memo or give credence to people he saw as campaign saboteurs.

"The Trump Campaign had reason to know the allegations against Coomer were false and unreliable,” Moses wrote.

Requests for comment were not immediately returned by attorneys representing either Coomer or Oltmann.

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