Trump buddy and MyPillow CEO ups election legal battle by $1.6bn

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a Trump loyalist, is locked in a legal battle with Dominion Voting Systems, which is separately suing him and his company for defamation over discredited 2020 election conspiracy theories.

Dominion Voting Systems sued Mike Lindell and MyPillow in February in United States federal court, seeking $1.3bn in damages and claiming the pillow company boosted sales by as much as 40 percent by echoing former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the US election was rigged [File: Bloomberg]

MyPillow Inc. Chief Executive Mike Lindell escalated a legal fight over his debunked claims of fraud in the 2020 election, with his company filing a lawsuit that seeks $1.6 billion from Dominion Voting Systems Inc., which is separately suing him and his company for defamation.

MyPillow sued Monday in federal court in Minnesota, where the company is based, doubling down on Lindell’s discredited claims of fraud against Dominion, saying “the adverse impact of electronic voting systems on the 2020 election was significant.”

“Dominion’s purpose is to silence debate; to eliminate any challenge to the 2020 presidential election; and to cancel and destroy anyone who speaks out against Dominion’s work on behalf of the government in administering the election,” MyPillow said in its complaint.

Dominion sued Lindell and MyPillow in February in federal court in Washington, seeking $1.3 billion in damages. It claimed the pillow company boosted sales by as much as 40% by echoing former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the election was rigged against him.

“This is a meritless retaliatory lawsuit, filed by MyPillow to try to distract from the harm it caused to Dominion,” Dominion lawyer Stephen Shackelford said in a statement.

Lindell, a vocal supporter of the former president, has publicly supported a discredited conspiracy theory that Dominion switched Trump votes to swing the election to President Joe Biden. In its countersuit, MyPillow is also seeking a court order prohibiting “any further suppression of speech regarding Dominion’s handling of the 2020 election or the integrity of its voting systems.”

The suit is the latest in a series of court actions by voting-machine companies seeking compensation from high-profile Trump supporters, including Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and commentators at Fox News, for public statements blaming them for voter fraud.

MyPillow claims Dominion acted to illegally shut down debate over the election, in violation of the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and that it interfered with MyPillow’s economic advantage by making negative false statements about it.

The case is MyPillow v. US Dominion, 21-cv-1015, U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota (Minneapolis).

Source: Bloomberg