Dominion Voting Techniques sued Mike Lindell, chief government of MyPillow, on Monday, alleging that he defamed Dominion with baseless claims of election fraud involving its voting machines. The corporate is searching for greater than $1.3 billion in damages.
The grievance, filed in U.S. District Courtroom for the District of Columbia, alleged that Mr. Lindell “exploited” false claims about election fraud to assist his firm’s gross sales.
“Lindell — a gifted salesman and former skilled card counter — sells the mislead today as a result of the lie sells pillows,” Dominion mentioned within the submitting. It mentioned MyPillow’s “defamatory advertising and marketing marketing campaign” — with promo codes like “FightforTrump” and “QAnon” — had elevated the corporate’s gross sales 30 p.c to 40 p.c.
“I’m very blissful that they’ve completed this,” Mr. Lindell mentioned in a cellphone interview on Monday. “I’m able to go to courtroom. I’ve all of the proof that anybody would ever wish to see.”
Mr. Lindell, who’s greatest identified for showing on packing containers of his firm’s pillows and in MyPillow’s infomercials, is a fierce supporter of former President Donald J. Trump, and rose to new prominence this yr as he promoted debunked conspiracy theories about election fraud. The claims, notably these made after the Jan. 6 rebellion on the Capitol, prompted a backlash towards Mr. Lindell and MyPillow. Plenty of retailers, together with Mattress Bathtub & Past and Kohl’s, minimize ties with the corporate whereas Twitter completely suspended Mr. Lindell’s account.
Dominion mentioned on Monday that it had written to Mr. Lindell a number of instances, “put him on formal written discover of the information and advised him that Dominion workers had been receiving dying threats due to the lies.”
“As an alternative of retracting his lies, Lindell — a multimillionaire with an almost limitless capacity to broadcast his most popular messages on conservative media — whined that he was being ‘censored’ and ‘attacked’ and produced a ‘docu-movie’ that includes shady characters and faux paperwork sourced from darkish corners of the web,” Dominion mentioned within the submitting.
In an interview with The New York Occasions final month, Mr. Lindell mentioned he would “welcome” a lawsuit from Dominion after the corporate despatched him a authorized letter warning of pending litigation over his baseless claims involving their machines.
“Dominion threatened to sue me and I mentioned convey it on, I need you to, I one hundred pc need you to,” Mr. Lindell mentioned within the Jan. 25 interview. “However they received’t do it, and why they received’t do it? As a result of they know all of the proof will come out.”
Dominion mentioned in its submitting that by discovery, it “will show that there isn’t a actual proof” to assist conspiracy theories claiming that the election was stolen.
MyPillow relies in Chaska, Minn., and is comparatively small; Mr. Lindell mentioned final month that it employed almost 2,500 individuals. It was based by Mr. Lindell, a former crack cocaine and playing addict, after the thought for MyPillow got here to him in a dream in 2004, in keeping with his memoir. The enterprise took off after it started airing infomercials in 2011, and Mr. Lindell’s curiosity in politics appears to have grown since then as effectively.
MyPillow has mentioned in courtroom filings that it spends a median of $5 million a month on promoting. A lot of that spending has been with Fox Information, which raised Mr. Lindell’s profile with Mr. Trump, an in depth watcher of the community. “I might not exit and threat every part I personal, every part I’ve, if I wasn’t one hundred pc being truthful, and that’s it,” Mr. Lindell mentioned Monday.
Defamation fits towards people and networks who shared Mr. Trump’s election conspiracies have turn out to be a brand new entrance within the conflict towards misinformation.
Dominion additionally filed defamation fits final month towards two of the previous president’s legal professionals, Rudolph W. Giuliani and Sidney Powell. One other voter know-how agency, Smartmatic, filed its defamation swimsuit towards Rupert Murdoch’s Fox empire in early February, saying its anchors Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro harmed its enterprise and popularity. Fox has filed a movement to dismiss that swimsuit.
