Dominion sends cease-and-desist letter to witness who appeared with Giuliani

Dominion Voting Systems has sent a cease-and-desist letter to a witness who accompanied Rudy Giuliani in contesting the presidential vote in Michigan. 

Lawyers representing the company told Mellissa Carone, a former contractor for Dominion, to “cease and desist making defamatory claims” and to preserve documents associated with her “smear campaign against the company,” according to the letter obtained by The Hill on Monday.

Carone is one of more than a dozen people who received letters warning about litigation from Dominion. The company says that she knowingly made false statements about the company and voter fraud, describing her mockingly as Giuliani’s “star witness.” 

“Without a shred of corroborating evidence, you have claimed that you witnessed several different versions of voter fraud—ranging from one story involving a van, to other accusations that votes were counted multiple times,” the letter said. “You published these statements even though you knew all along that your attacks on Dominion have no basis in reality.”

Attorneys Thomas Clare and Megan Meier sent Carone’s letter on Dec. 22. They wrote that they were reaching out because Carone has made herself “a prominent leader of the ongoing misinformation campaign by pretending to have some sort of ‘insider knowledge’ ” on Dominion’s activities.

But the letter addressed to Carone said, “in reality you were hired through a staffing agency for one day to clean glass on machines and complete other menial tasks.”

Dominion requested Carone keep all documents related to communications between anyone from President Trump’s campaign and legal team, including Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and L. Lin Wood, and any of her prepared statements on the election or the company.

Carone rose in prominence when she appeared beside Giuliani at hearings in front of Michigan’s state legislature. At the hearing, she asserted that she saw thousands of ballots go through tabulators multiple times, while working for Dominion at Detroit’s TCF Center, even though the official count wasn’t off by thousands, according to The Detroit News. 

A video of her testimony went viral after she interrupted a Michigan representative as Giuliani tapped her arm and tapped the table, seemingly to get her attention. 

Carone confirmed to The Detroit News on Monday that she received Dominion’s letter, which she called “degrading” for saying she cleaned glass instead of working in information technology.

“I am not concerned about it,” Carone told the news outlet, adding “They’re scared of me.”

President Trump has refused to concede to President-elect Joe Biden despite Biden widely being recognized as the president-elect for more than a month. 

Instead, Trump’s campaign and allies, including Giuliani, filed several lawsuits contesting the vote in some battleground states, such as Michigan, and alleging widespread voter fraud without supporting evidence. 

Michigan certified the results this month showing that Biden won the state by about 150,000 votes.