Rob Schumacher/AFP/Getty Images
Republican Party executive Christina Bobb appears at arraignment with her attorney (right) in Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix, Arizona, on May 21.
CNN
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Indicted Republican National Committee official and former One America News host Christina Bobb is avoiding testifying in a 2020-related defamation lawsuit, according to Dominion Voting Systems, which is fighting Bobb in court.
Bobb’s lawyers had previously argued that the defamation lawsuit against Dominion and the routine depositions they are seeking should be suspended following his indictment in Arizona for his role in the Trump campaign’s voter fraud scheme. Bobb has denied wrongdoing in both cases.
Dominion’s lawyers told the judge Monday that the defamation lawsuit should move forward and that document requests and deposition questions can be adjusted to avoid the Arizona-specific allegations.
“Any testimony by Ms. Bob could undermine her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, expand criminal discovery beyond the scope of Arizona law, expose Ms. Bob’s theories to the prosecution before trial, and otherwise prejudice her criminal case,” Thomas Jacobs, Ms. Bob’s criminal lawyer in the Arizona case, said in a past court filing.
Voting technology company Dominion sued Bobb and the far-right cable network OAN, as well as other Trump supporters and right-wing media outlets that spread lies about the election, in 2021. Dominion’s lawyers said in a filing Monday that Bobb’s lawyers did not respond to emails in March and May attempting to schedule a deposition for Bobb.
“Bob has not produced a single document in this litigation and has simply ignored Dominion’s attempts to schedule a deposition for her, including those that occurred well before the Arizona indictment,” Dominion’s lawyers wrote, asking the Washington, D.C.-based judge in the case to order Bob to appear for a deposition.
After then-President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, Bob used her on-air role at OAN to repeatedly spread baseless conspiracy theories that the election results were rigged, including by Dominion software. At the same time, she worked closely with Trump lawyers and allies to orchestrate an illegal slate of Republican electors to overturn the election results in several battleground states that Trump lost.
Following a shakeup of the Republican National Committee earlier this year that saw Bobb and other Trump allies assume top leadership positions, Bobb has focused on so-called “election integrity” efforts, including stricter rules on mail-in voting and new lawsuits aimed at restricting the use of ballot drop boxes.
