Dominion Voting Systems reaches settlement in its $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit against Guiliani

Rudy Giuliani has reached a settlement with Dominion Voting Systems in its $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit over his baseless 2020 election-rigging claims.

The two sides said in a filing in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Friday that they have agreed to permanently dismiss the suit against the former New York City mayor and former personal lawyer to President Trump.

The brief filing doesn’t cite the settlement terms. Spokespeople for Giuliani and the Colorado-based Dominion said Saturday that the terms are confidential and declined to comment further.

“The Parties have agreed to a confidential settlement to this matter,” a Dominion spokesperson told CBS News in a statement Saturday.

CBS News has also reached out to representatives for Giuliani for comment.

Dominion sued Giuliani in 2021 for $1.3 billion in damages after he led Mr. Trump’s efforts to cast doubt on the 2020 election results.

Conservatives and other Trump supporters blamed the company, one of the nation’s top voting machine makers, for the Republican’s loss to former President Joe Biden.

Many alleged, without evidence, that its systems were easily manipulated. Dominion had provided voting machines for the state of Georgia, a critical battleground that Biden won and which flipped control of the U.S. Senate.

The web of conspiracy theories following the 2020 election not only caused headaches for Dominion but also undermined public confidence in U.S. elections, led to calls to ban voting machines and triggered death threats against elections officials.

But Trump’s former attorney general and others found no widespread fraud in the election.

Fox News also agreed to a nearly $800 million settlement with Dominion in 2023, and another politically conservative network, Newsmax, agreed to a $67 million settlement with Dominion over its election claims.

The company’s suit against Giuliani was based on statements the onetime presidential hopeful made on social media, on conservative news outlets and during legislative hearings in which he claimed the company conspired to flip votes to Biden.

Dominion’s lawsuit was among a series of legal and financial setbacks for Giuliani stemming from his role in spreading election conspiracy theories.

Earlier this month, a New York judge ordered the Republican, once celebrated as “America’s mayor” for his leadership after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, to pay $1.36 million in legal fees.

Giuliani, in recent years, has also been disbarred as an attorney in New York and Washington; filed for bankruptcy and reached an undisclosed settlement to keep his homes and belongings after he was ordered to pay $148 million to two former Georgia elections workers he defamed.

On Friday, a federal judge in Minnesota ruled that MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, an ally of President Trump, had defamed the election technology company Smartmatic with false statements that its voting machines helped rig the 2020 election.