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Mike Lindell speaks before a rally for Donald Trump at The Farm at 95 on April 9, 2022 in Selma, North Carolina (Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images).
The legal and financial woes for stalwart Donald Trump ally Mike Lindell continued to worsen on Monday, when a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered the MyPillow founder and CEO to cough up more than $50,000 in sanctions over “frivolous” claims he made in connection with his lawsuit against voting software company Smartmatic.
In the case, the underlying lawsuit was filed by Dominion Voting Systems, accusing Lindell and MyPillow of slander over false claims about the 2020 election. Lindell later sued both voting companies for alleged racketeering (RICO) violations, among other claims, and lost. Smartmatic, in turn, moved for sanctions in the form of substantial legal fees.
U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols sided with Smartmatic on the matter in a May 2022 ruling.
“The Court agrees with Smartmatic that Lindell has asserted at least some groundless claims,” Nichols wrote. “In particular, the Court concludes that at the very least Lindell’s claim against Smartmatic under the Support or Advocacy Clause falls on the frivolous side of the line (other claims do too). As a result, the Court orders Lindell and his previous counsel to pay some of the fees and costs Smartmatic has incurred defending itself and moving for sanctions under Rule 11.”
The Support or Advocacy Clause is part of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 and prohibits conspiracies aimed and preventing individuals from supporting or advocating for candidates in federal elections.
However, the court in 2022 was not clear as to how much money Lindell would be on the hook for, with the voting company seeking “an award of at least $546,156” based on “reasonable legal fees for 1168.6 hours of work investigating, researching, and drafting several complex motions, plus $400 in costs.”
“The award is reasonable considering: the volume, gravity, and frivolousness of Mr. Lindell’s allegations and claims; the ‘$2 billion’ in damages sought; the range and severity of Mr. Lindell and his counsel’s Rule 11 violations; and the amount of fees they caused Smartmatic to incur,” Smartmatic argued.
The court rejected the idea that all of Lindell’s claims were frivolous, indicating that Smartmatic should cabin its requests somewhat.
In the end, Nichols, a Trump appointee, on Monday awarded Smartmatic $56,369, only a fraction of what the company had sought from Lindell, reasoning that the penalty should be based on Smartmatic’s cost in defending against the “frivolous” claims based on the Support or Advocacy Clause in the case filed by Lindell.
“Adding up the time entries attributed to defending against that claim, the Court orders Lindell to pay $56,369 to Smartmatic. Pending final judgment and a potential appeal as to Lindell’s counterclaims, however, the Court orders that money to be held in escrow by Smartmatic’s counsel, subject to an escrow agreement negotiated by the relevant parties.”
The sanctions owed to Smartmatic are among the least of Lindell’s recent difficulties. A state judge in Minnesota last month ordered Lindell’s company, MyPillow Inc., to pay packing shipping and delivery company DHL $777,729.73, for failing to pay its business debts. The amount that included principal, interest, and attorneys fees,
DHL initially filed the suit against MyPillow in September 2023 claiming the company owed nearly $800,000 for DHL’s pillow delivery services, which spanned several years. The companies reached a settlement in May 2023 requiring MyPillow to pay monthly installments totaling $775,000, but DHL said the company handed over less than $65,000 before payments stopped.
A federal judge in Minnesota last week also ordered Lindell to provide financial data identifying any entities that owe Lindell and his company money as well as any debts owed by Lindell and the company in connection with the $5 million he owes to engineer Robers Zeidman. Zeidman in 2021 won the “Prove Mike Wrong” challenge by showing that the data Lindell claimed was proof of foreign interference in the 2020 presidential election was nothing of the sort.
