Government

MyPillow Guy *Thrilled* To Be Sued By Dominion In $1.3 Billion Defamation Suit

Thank you, sir, may I have another.

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(Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

This morning, Dominion Voting Systems made good on its threat and added  MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to the list of Trumplanders getting sued for false claims about its election software.

In a 115-page complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against Lindell and the company he founded, Dominion alleges that Lindell cannily flogged bogus election claims as part of a plot to boost pillow sales.

After hitting the jackpot with Donald Trump’s endorsement for MyPillow and after a million-dollar bet on Fox News ads had paid out handsome returns, Michael Lindell exploited another chance to boost sales: marketing MyPillow to people who would tune in and attend rallies to hear Lindell tell the “Big Lie” that Dominion had stolen the 2020 election. As when MyPillow previously faced legal action for deceptive marketing campaigns, Lindell knew there was no real “evidence” supporting his claims. And he is well aware of the independent audits and paper ballot recounts conclusively disproving the Big Lie. But Lindell — a talented salesman and former professional card counter—sells the lie to this day because the lie sells pillows. MyPillow’s defamatory marketing campaign—with promo codes like “FightforTrump,” “45,” “Proof,” and “QAnon” — has increased MyPillow sales by 30-40% and continues duping people into redirecting their election-lie outrage into pillow purchases.

“Now I can get to the evidence faster. It’s going to be amazing,” Lindell told the Washington Post, adding that he plans “more movies, more documentaries” about Dominion’s (non-existent) role in switching votes from Trump to Biden in a play to overturn the election. Presumably this means he won’t be filing a Motion to Dismiss before discovery gets under way.

If he’s just pretending to be so crazy that he actually believes the nonsense he’s spewing about Dominion and Smartmatic, he’s definitely committed to the bit. But according to Dominion, it really is just a bit by a career conman who had actual and constructive notice that his supposed “proof” of election fraud was nothing more than a list of non-existent IPO addresses strung together by a retired interior designer and a known scammer.

As Dominion notes, it sent multiple letters to Lindell explaining how his claims were not just wrong but literally impossible since Dominion’s paper ballots leave a trail that cannot be altered by election night hacking, allowing states like Georgia to confirm the machine tally via hand recount.

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Moreover, as a self proclaimed numbers guy who “especially loved game theory—the idea that success in making choices depends on understanding the choices of others,” Dominion argues that Lindell must have known that the statistical evidence from the “Kraken” suits was junk based on a faulty premise that the absentee votes could not have skewed so heavily Democratic. Particularly since Lindell himself had retweeted the former president’s multiple exhortations to vote in-person, so he clearly understood that there would be a party split between in-person and absentee ballots.

As evidence that Lindell was aware his “evidence” was crap, Dominion points to the Pillow CEO’s convoluted efforts not to reveal it despite multiple requests.

Despite the fact that he has “done his own due diligence,” “hired his own experts,” and “seen the evidence himself,” Lindell has repeatedly failed to produce any evidence—other than the fraudulent “analytics” screenshot from The American Report conspiracy theory blog. 136 Indeed, following an interview with NBC News, when asked to produce evidence supporting his claims, Lindell replied in an email: “All the evidence against Dominion is before the Supreme Court. … Here is one page of the proof.”137 NBC reported that “[t]he email did not include an attachment. When asked if he had mistakenly omitted it, Lindell sent another email with an empty attachment and a third with screenshots of illegible text.”

And in support of the claim that MyPillow is also on the hook, since it partnered with the CEO’s ratfucking efforts and monetized his media appearances, Dominion notes that the company sponsored the Women for America First “March for Trump” bus tour and had promo codes tailored to each of Lindell’s media appearances. For instance:

On December 3, 2020, Lindell appeared on America First with Sebastian Gorka. During that interview, Lindell told a global television audience that he, Powell, and Wood were “getting the word out on this election fraud” and that they were trying to get these “Dominion machines.” Having been given a platform to promote the Big Lie, Lindell also took the opportunity to market MyPillow, saying that the “President loves” MyPillow and that people should go to MyPillow.com and use promo code “Gorka.” During the interview, the MyPillow logo, website, and phone number were also prominently displayed for viewers.

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In another appearance on January 20, 2021 Lindell claimed “just in Fulton County, [Georgia] it shows 24,000 votes flipped inside the machine,” while urging viewers to use the discount code “MIKE” for up to 66% off, which would allow Lindell to use the profits “for good.”

Lindell, who also used the media appearances to sell his books, claims that his election advocacy has actually been bad for the company. “I’ve lost 22 retailers. It has hit me financially like crazy,” he told the Post. And assuming the CEO sticks to his Vincent Gigante act and doesn’t try to get this dismissed before discovery, we’ll all find out soon enough if this is true.

Complaint and Demand for Jury Trial [US DOMINION, INC. v. MY PILLOW, INC. (1:21-cv-00445)]
Dominion files defamation lawsuit against MyPillow CEO over false claims voting machines were rigged against Trump [WaPo]

Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

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