MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, the rabidly pro-Trump pillow magnate who bafflingly became one of the key figures in the ex-president’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 elections, is now facing a billion-dollar defamation lawsuit from election tech manufacturer Dominion Voting Systems. While the suit appears to be a slam dunk, the pillow truther claims to be thrilled.
Dominion was smeared by right-wing conspiracists with an elaborate hoax theory that the company acted as a fraud factory that flipped countless thousands of votes for Trump to Biden — possibly in collusion with China, Venezuela, or some other nefarious foreign power. This did not occur, and multiple states have confirmed Dominion’s vote counts were accurate, but the company says the viral conspiracy theories immensely damaged its reputation and financial standing. Lindell, who sells pillows to conservatives with ads on networks like Fox News, was one of the most active promoters of the Dominion angle. He repeatedly used his now-banned Twitter account and right-wing networks like Newsmax and One America News to spread lies about the company.
Lindell doubled down even after Dominion sent him a cease-and-desist letter and launched $US1.3 ($2) billion defamation suits against Trump’s campaign attorneys, Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, for making similar claims. He even released a multi-hour, unintentionally funny “documentary” called Absolute Proof, which did not contain any proof of the nonexistent fraud, but did feature Lindell coining words like “cyberly” and exclaiming “wow!” or “what?” dozens of times.
Dominion is now suing Lindell for more than $US1.3 ($2) billion in damages in federal court, per the New York Times, arguing that the pillow man is a “talented salesman and former professional card counter — [who] sells the lie to this day because the lie sells pillows.” The voting tech firm also alleged that Lindell was running a “defamatory marketing campaign,” to profiteer off conservatives’ disbelief that Trump would go out a one-term President. MyPillow sales skyrocketed 30-40% after Lindell started using promo codes like “FightforTrump” and “QAnon” to lure Trump’s gullible followers into believing the pillow bucket was somehow connected to the fascism bucket.
The suit names dozens of times Lindell lied about Dominion, claiming the pillow man was “well aware of the independent audits and paper ballot recounts conclusively disproving the Big Lie.”
“No amount of money can repair the damage that’s been done by these lies, which are easily disproved,” Dominion wrote in the suit. “Hundreds of documented audits and recounts have proven that Dominion machines accurately counted votes. We look forward to proving these facts in a court of law.”
According to the Associated Press, Lindell explained that he was in fact very excited about being sued (he previously told the Daily Beast he has lured Dominion into a clever little legal trap, as he believes the discovery process will turn up evidence proving the fraud occurred.)
“It’s a very good day,” Lindell told the AP. “I’ve been looking forward to them finally suing… I’d love to go to court tomorrow with Dominion.”
In a separate statement to the Wall Street Journal, Lindell said that “I have all the evidence on them. Now this will get disclosed faster, all the machine fraud and the attack on our country.”
Dominion was also very excited about going into the discovery process, because it will not prove the fraud occurred.
“… Through discovery, Dominion will prove that there is no real evidence supporting the Big Lie,” the suit states, according to CNN. “Dominion brings this action to vindicate the company’s rights, to recover damages, to seek a narrowly tailored injunction, to stand up for itself and its employees, and to stop Lindell and MyPillow from further profiting at Dominion’s expense.”
If, as Dominion’s suit argues, Lindell was in it for the money, it may have backfired big time. Retailers that have dropped MyPillow products in the past few months have included Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohl’s, though both companies told the Journal the change was due to lagging sales of Lindell’s pillows rather than his campaign to put Trump back in office.