The co-founder of a voting machine company must give evidence in a multi-billion dollar lawsuit against a broadcaster and Donald Trump supporters Patrick Byrne and Mike Lindell, a judge has ruled.
Dominion Voting Systems’ co-founder, James Hoover, must give deposition evidence, but for no longer than three hours, Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya stated in a written ruling on Friday.
According to the University of Washington School of Law, a deposition is “an opportunity for parties in a lawsuit to obtain testimony from a witness under oath prior to trial” and is “part of the discovery process by which parties gather facts and information so they can be better prepared at trial to present their claims and defenses.”
The company is suing broadcaster One America News Network (OAN), which allegedly claimed that Dominion had helped rig the 2020 presidential election in President Joe Biden’s favor.
Upadhyaya, a federal judge in Washington D.C., is trying to resolve a long-running dispute about how much Dominion must disclose in the case.
Mike Lindell on July 18, 2024, in Milwaukee. A voting machine company is suing Lindell for allegedly claiming that its machines were rigged during the 2020 presidential election.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
The case has been taken against Herring Networks, Inc., doing business as OAN.
Dominion is also suing the network’s owners Robert Herring Sr. and his son Charles Herring and OAN journalists Chanel Rion and Christina Bobb.
In the same lawsuit taken against OAN, Dominion is also suing Trump’s 2020 campaign attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, as well as two key allies of the Republican nominee—former Overstock CEO Byrne and My Pillow CEO Lindell.
All the defendants allegedly claimed that Dominion rigged its voting machines in Biden‘s favor, part of a conspiracy theory promoted by Trump and many of his supporters.
All of the defendants have publicly denied any wrongdoing.
In a discovery dispute between Dominion and Herring Networks, Upadhyaya granted Herring’s request to depose Hoover.
However, Upadhyaya said she has not yet decided whether Dominion can depose Herring Sr.
“With respect to the question of whether Defendant Robert Herring, Sr. must be compelled to testify, the Parties shall submit their positions in letter briefs not to exceed two pages per side, except Herring may file a one-page reply to Dominion’s response,” she wrote.
She said they must submit their letters by September 20, 2024.
She also ordered that the parties “work cooperatively on a subpoena” to be sent to three OAN employees “for a search of any personal devices for responsive information” that might help the case.
Dominion is seeking more than $1 billion in damages from OAN.
The network has been resisting some of Dominion’s discovery claims.
Areas of dispute include disclosure protocol that involve “specific disputes involving Dominion and OAN,” according to court documents.
Newsweek sought email comment on Monday from lawyers for Herring Networks and Dominion.
In April, 2024, another voting machine company, Smartmatic, settled its lawsuit against OAN without disclosing the terms.
Smartmatic had claimed that OAN’s false accusations of vote rigging had cut its business value from $3 billion to $1 billion.
In September 2023, former Dominion official Eric Coomer settled his case against OAN and Rion for an undisclosed sum.
