While the wheels of justice might turn slowly, today the Colorado Court of Appeals handed down a decision that show that they do turn. It ruled that the case filed in 2021 by Dr. Eric Coomer, against former President Trump for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress (by their many statements accusing him of fixing the 2020 election) has a right to proceed to trial.
Dr. Eric Coomer, Vice President of Product Strategy for Dominion Voting Systems had to keep traveling as the COVID-19 pandemic surged to prepare for the 2020 election. Now, due to death threats, he is in hiding. Courtesy photo.
A division of the court of appeals found that in applying the anti-SLAPP statute, § 13-20-1101, C.R.S. 2023, it concluded that Coomer as the plaintiff has met the hurdles establishing a reasonable likelihood of success on his claims for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress arising out of statements by various defendants that the plaintiff made.
“We are very pleased by today’s ruling and by the opportunity to bring this case to trial after nearly three and a half years,” said Cain & Skarnulis PLLC Appellate Partner Zach Bowman, who argued the case for Dr. Coomer at the Colorado Court of Appeals.
“The court of appeals’ ruling affirms that Dr. Coomer’s claims against the Trump Campaign, Sidney Powell, and other defendants have merit and that our client deserves his long-awaited day in court,” Bowman added. “We are eager to get this case back to the trial court and before a Denver jury.”
The case doesn’t just involve Trump, it involves several of his cohorts in the defamation, including claims by his attorneys and the campaign itself. Among the alleged defamation claims:
- “The assertion on a conference call in September 2020 that he [Coomer} had “made sure” then-President Trump was not going to win the 2020 presidential election” and that he …
- “Took steps to interfere with the election results.”
At the time, the allegations against Dr. Coomer, who was the Vice President at Dominion Voting Systems in charge of technology, brought him hundreds of threats of violence, including death threats from Trump supporters, and caused him to have to leave his Salida area home and go into hiding. In December 2020, Ark Valley Voice interviewed him in one of the only interviews Coomer has ever given about the experience of what it was like, not to be able to go home.
The Court of Appeals noted that in accepting the plaintiff’s evidence as true, Coomer has shown a reasonable likelihood that each defendant in the case actually made these statements, that the statements were false, and “that the defendants made them with actual malice”.
During his conversation with Ark Valley Voice in 2020, the emotional toll it took on Coomer was apparent, as was his grief over the questions raised about his loyalty to democracy and the insults to his reputation in the industry. “I’ve been in elections for 15 years,” he said back then. “There is always someone out there [one or two], usually on the losing side – that make allegations that elections are rigged. I never expected for a sitting U.S. President to call into question my loyalty to the country.”
In one small win for the Trump defenders, the Colorado Court of Appeals decided that Coomer had not established a reasonable likelihood of success on his conspiracy claim because the plaintiff presented no evidence of an agreement to defame him.
But the Court of Appeals did affirm the district court’s denial of the special motions to dismiss the plaintiff’s claims for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. It reverses the denial of the special motions to dismiss the plaintiff’s conspiracy claim as to certain defendants (those who challenge that ruling on appeal).
Cain & Skarnulis PLLC has offices in Austin, Texas, and Salida, Colorado.
Editor’s note: the link to the 2020 Ark Valley Voice interview with Dr. Coomer, includes our interview podcast. For more AVV coverage about the long process to move this case to trial, follow this link: https://arkvalleyvoice.com/page/1/?s=”Dr.+Eric+Coomer”
I wish Dr. Coomer swift Justice and I hope justice is still possible in this country. I have my doubts that justice exists for anyone in this country that cannot buy it.