A federal judge raised the validity of unfounded claims made against the 2020 election results as he weighed whether to let a series of defamation lawsuits from the voting company Dominion proceed in his court.

Lawyers for Trump-aligned lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, as well as Mike Lindell and his company My Pillow, were in D.C. federal court Thursday to argue that a series of lawsuits filed by Dominion should be thrown out, or at least transferred out of the D.C. court. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols heard arguments on those motions for four hours, pressing lawyers about the standard he should apply in deciding whether to let the cases survive.