Sidney Powell, one of former US president Donald Trump’s former lawyers, is being sued by Dominion Voting Systems for defamation. Her lawyers have entered a truly astonishing defence: that her statements alleging the Democratic Party stole the election using the company’s vote counting software can’t be defamation because no reasonable person would have believed them.

The defence is legally wrong. Her statements were clearly assertions of fact – and they were believed by many members of the public.

MCT