The voting systems companies at the center of President Donald Trump’s voter fraud claims are fighting back in a way the litigious commander in chief might: by going to court.

Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic are threatening to sue chief accuser Sidney Powell and conservative news outlets that have amplified disprovable claims about their companies, damaging their brand.

Dominion is waiting for a response from Powell to their demand she retract her defamatory claims before taking further steps, which could involve more defendants who have enabled or reiterated false claims against the company, a spokesperson for Dominion told Colorado Politics Monday.

She, like other Dominion employees, did not want to be identified by name out of security concerns in the charged political climate.

“We will definitely be considering taking aggressive action against others who have amplified this campaign of disinformation and defamation by spreading the falsehoods they have about Dominion long after all of these claims have been discredited and dismissed by the courts,” the company spokesperson said. “

Dominion supplies its platform to dozens of Colorado counties among more than 1,900 local governments across the country.

Dominion hired defamation lawyer Tom Clare, who is hailed as one of the country’s highest profile First Amendment attorneys and who typically works for Fortune 100 companies and sports teams.

For example, his Alexandria, Virginia, law firm represented the University of Virginia’s Sexual Misconduct Board in a successful $3 million lawsuit in 2016 against Rolling Stone magazine over its sensational – and later proved erroneous – story about sexual assaults on the school’s campus.

Last week, lawyers for Smartmatic sent letters to the Fox News Channel, Newsmax and One America News – the pro-Trump outlets most invested in the claims – demanding they clear up reporting that’s slanderous and disprovable by standard reporting.

Over the weekend Fox News aired a “fact check” piece during the shows of opinion hosts Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartiromo, who have talked up claims against the voting machine companies raised by the president’s legal team.

Newsmax posted a story titled “Facts About Dominion, Smartmatic You Should Know,” acknowledging the outlet had no evidence to back up some of the most damning claims made by others in its previous reporting.

Clare did not immediately respond to an email from Colorado Politics on Monday.

He emailed a statement to the New York Times about Powell that said, “We are moving forward on the basis that she will not retract those false statements and that it will be necessary for Dominion to take aggressive legal action, both against Ms. Powell and the many others who have enabled and amplified her campaign of defamation by spreading damaging falsehoods about Dominion.”

Monday the New York Times referred to the “era of brazen political lies” in a piece about possible defamation litigation in the Dominion and Smartmatic cases.

Colorado’s Jenna Ellis, a senior legal adviser to the Trump campaign and a personal counsel to the president, also has been among those accusers, but she has not been named a defendant in possible litigation so far.

She spoke remotely to Colorado’s Legislative Audit Committee last week asking for lawmakers to “take election integrity seriously,” calling it central to protecting the U.S. Constitution and ensure the vote isn’t “corrupted.”

She said lawmakers had a duty to investigate concerns, regardless of their opinions about conspiracy theories or who was or wasn’t elected.

“Regardless of party affiliation, regardless of the outcome of elections, this is something that matters to every voter and to every American,” she told the committee. “And I would encourage all 50 states to have the ability and the integrity … to look very seriously at the administration of the laws and look very seriously at why the Dominion Voting Systems is there, to answer those questions and honestly assess what’s going on in the state.”

She referred to claims and witnesses in other states, but, pressed by Democratic Sen. Rhonda Fields of Aurora, couldn’t provide proof of specific fraud in Colorado.

Two former Republican secretaries of state, Scott Gessler and Wayne Williams, spoke about their confidence in Dominion’s use in Colorado but made suggestions on ways to strengthen voting verification in Colorado.

Gessler spoke of the successes he had in one term, 2013 to 2017, before opting for an unsuccessful run as governor, including implementing the state’s mail-ballot voting system instituted by the legislature, which he opposed at the time.

He spoke of claims in other states, including vote-buying in Nevada, and mistakes with Dominion machines that were later found to be worker error, as well as questionable procedures and lack of transparency by election officials in other states.

“Some outright incompetence, to my mind, really throws into doubt the outcome of the election in several states in this country,” Gessler said. “To say some of the systems are third world is an insult third-world countries, to be frank.”

As to Dominion, he said, “I personally have not seen extensive evidence – I’ve seen some and I’ve seen some of the accusations – I think Dominion has performed very well in Colorado.”

But, Gessler added, “There are deep concerns about its reliability, its fairness, and some of these concerns are brought to fore by, I believe, credible, well-meaning and sincere individuals.”

Gessler led the department when most Colorado counties switched to Dominion starting in 2015, joined by Republican and Democratic county clerks across the state. Williams implemented the system and told the legislative committee last week that the results have been tested locally across the state 868 times since, passing every time.

Amber McReynolds was the election director for the city and county of Denver who assisted Dominion in designing and rolling out its software in Colorado. She now leads the national Vote at Home organization that helps local governments make voting more accessible.

She told Colorado Politics last month that the claims against Dominion didn’t add up on the most basic factual level – that there’s no way to switch votes, that the machines are not hooked up to the internet, and many are overseen by Republican election officials and tested by local bipartisan boards.

She reiterated the holes in the allegations Monday, including the Trump legal team’s assertion that Dominion relied on Smartmatic software. McReynolds noted that Smartmatic is Dominion’s international competitor, does nearly no business in the U.S., and had no role in Colorado or any of the other swing states.

“They’re deliberately destroying an American company,” McReynolds said of the legal team about Dominion.

She said she’s most concerned that those alleging unsubstantiated fraud are costing local taxpayers money that local elections offices need, not just for recounts in swing states but across the country as well. Local clerk’s offices are fielding unwarranted complaints prompted by the Trump legal team, as well as threats, in some reported cases.

“Meanwhile they’re raising hundreds of millions of dollars,” McReynolds said of the Trump campaign’s ongoing fundraising, which continued even after the Electoral College votes were cast a week ago.

Colorado Republican leaders have been forced to walk a partisan tight rope over the issue – supporting the election system fostered by Gessler and Williams, as well as local clerks and election workers across the state, and supporting the president.

Colorado Politics sought comment Monday from U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, a Trump ally who is also chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. His spokeswoman said Buck was “super tied up” with congressional matters Monday and was not available to comment.

He led an hourlong discussion on the conservative website Caucus Room on Dec. 2, where he said Colorado GOP county clerks do a good job and the state’s election system is secure.

“It’s so important for us to understand that our votes are not being manipulated,” Buck said.

This article has been updated with responses from Dominion Voting Systems and Rep. Ken Buck’s office and to correct Amber McReynold’s title with the city.