Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani sued by Dominion voting machine firm

Mr Giuliani repeated the allegations at a rally before the 6 January riot at the US Capitol

A firm which provided voting machinery in last year's US presidential election is filing a defamation suit against Donald Trump's lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, seeking $1.3bn (£950m) in damages.

Dominion Voting Systems accuses Mr Giuliani of using Twitter and media appearances to promote a false narrative that the election was stolen.

Mr Trump has refused to concede that Joe Biden won the 2020 election fairly.

Mr Giuliani said the case would give him a chance to prove his allegations.

Following the election Mr Giuliani repeated claims that Dominion was a Venezuelan enterprise and its machines switched votes from Mr Trump, a Republican, to Mr Biden, a Democrat.

But the accusations have been rejected by courts in a number of states.

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Also, Mr Trump's Attorney General William Barr said in December that his department had found no evidence to back up Mr Trump's claims of fraud.

The US Congress verified Mr Biden's victory on 6 January.

'Enormous harm'

In court documents, Dominion alleges that Mr Giuliani "and his allies manufactured and disseminated the 'Big Lie,' which foreseeably went viral and deceived millions of people into believing that Dominion had stolen their votes and fixed the election".

It said he repeated the "lie" even after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building in Washington DC on 6 January.

The riots came as Mr Trump and Mr Giuliani continued to deny that Mr Biden had won the election and claim widespread voter fraud.

The lawsuit also states that the company had to spend more than $500,000 on private security to protect employees from harassment and death threats.

Mr Giuliani's statements provoked outrage and caused the company "enormous harm", it added.

The firm filed the lawsuit to "stand up for itself, its employees and the electoral process", the lawsuit says.

Dominion is already seeking $1.3bn from another former Trump lawyer, Sidney Powell, who made similar accusations.

It says it has demanded that both lawyers, as well as more than 150 individuals and companies, retract their statements - but both have persisted in making false claims.

US defamation laws differs from counterparts in Europe and elsewhere, in that the burden of proof rests with the claimant rather than with the defendant.

In other words, Dominion will have to prove that false and defamatory statements were made against it, and that it was damaged by them.