Dominion sues right-wing OAN and pair of Trump-loving reporters for spreading 'manufactured stories about election fraud'

Dominion Voting Systems has filed new defamation lawsuits against One America News and two of its on-air broadcasters for spreading "lies" about the November 2020 election.

The voting machine company has sued Donald Trump's former attorneys, Fox News and Newsmax, and it filed a long-awaited suit against the right-wing OAN and reporters Chanel Rion and Christina Bobb, along with former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, seeking more than $1.6 billion in damages.

"During and after the November 2020 election, OAN saw a business opportunity," the suit alleges. "Spurred by a quest for profits and viewers, OAN — a competitor to media giant Fox — engaged in a race to the bottom with Fox and other outlets such as Newsmax to spread false and manufactured stories about election fraud. Dominion quickly became the focus of this downward spiral of lies, as each broadcaster attempted to outdo the others by making the lies more outrageous, spreading them further, and endorsing them as strongly as possible."

The company accused Byrne of repeatedly and falsely claiming that Dominion rigged the vote counts to steal the election for President Joe Biden, and blamed Newsmax and the former tech CEO of spinning conspiracy theories that triggered an ongoing "audit" in Arizona.

"Newsmax helped create and cultivate an alternate reality where up is down, pigs have wings, and Dominion engaged in a colossal fraud to steal the presidency from Donald Trump by rigging the vote," the suit alleges.

The lawsuit notes that Newsmax employees were aware the election claims were false -- even describing some of them as "insane" -- and would likely result in legal complaints.

Fox News, meanwhile, has moved to dismiss the Dominion lawsuit. "Fox News Media is proud of our 2020 election coverage, which stands in the highest tradition of American journalism, and will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit in court," the network said in a statement.