NEW YORK (AP) — A Colorado judge on Friday denied motions to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed by an election systems worker against former President Donald Trump's campaign, two of its lawyers and a handful of conservative media figures and outlets.

District Court Judge Marie Avery Moses, in a 136-page decision, rejected various arguments to throw out the lawsuit filed by Eric Coomer, who was security director at the Colorado-based Dominion Voting Systems. Coomer said he faced death threats after he was baselessly accused of trying to rig the 2020 presidential election in favor of President Joe Biden.

Moses wrote that “there is overwhelming evidence that an injunction would serve the public interest because the public is harmed by the spread of defamatory information.”

Coomer's lawsuit, filed prior to Biden's inauguration in Denver County, Colorado, accused the Trump campaign and lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell of spreading false stories about him. Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin, the website Gateway Pundit, Colorado conservative activist Joseph Oltmann and One America News Network were among the others sued.

The conservative news outlet Newsmax was dropped from Coomer's lawsuit in April 2021 after it apologized and aired a statement that it had found no evidence that the accusations made against him by Trump's team and supporters were true.

The Associated Press